THE SNP have hit out at Gordon Brown, the Labour party’s headline appointment to its Constitutional Commission, after he said he doesn’t “see why” Scotland is administering its own benefits when it could be done by Westminster.

The SNP have said that Brown’s comments, made last week, “fly in the face” of the idea that Labour can offer Scotland anything new, adding: “Gordon Brown’s alternative is that we should sit back and wait for Westminster.”

However, Keir Starmer claimed his newly announced commission, which Brown will advise, will aim to be “every bit as bold and radical as the programme of devolution that Labour delivered in the 1990s and 2000s”.

The former prime minister’s remarks were made at a Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) webinar last week in response to a question which asked: “The new Scottish Child Payment has been described as ‘game-changing’ by CPAG in Scotland. Should we be calling on the UK Government to match that ambition?”

In response, Brown said: “I’m actually disappointed by the delays in the Scottish Poverty Payment and I don’t see why they’ve created a completely separate social security system to administer it when it could have been administered through the Department for Work and Pensions.

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“You’ve got to remember that we were, when in Government, ... [Labour] raised child benefit and tax credits to give families £20, £30, £50, sometimes £100 extra to make ends meet.

“The Scottish Child Poverty Payment, let’s be honest £10, it will probably cost £2 or £3 to administer. It could have been done far better.

“I’m afraid I cannot share the enthusiasm of this measure other than recognition of the problem of child poverty. We have to do better in all 4 countries of the United Kingdom.”

The Scottish Child Payment was intended to be up and running by the end of 2020. However, the pandemic has meant the first payments will now not be made until February 2021.

When it was first announced, John Dickie, the director of CPAG in Scotland, said the payment was "an absolute game-changer in the fight to end child poverty". It has been similarly hailed as “vital” by Action for Children Scotland.

Responding to Brown’s comment’s Neil Gray, the SNP MP for Airdrie and Shotts, said they showed “just how out of touch” the former Labour leader is and stressed that it is “the Scottish Child Payment – not the Scottish Poverty Payment”.

READ MORE: Keir Starmer is recycling the same old rubbish – no wonder Scots aren't listening​

Gray went on: “To suggest at an event arranged to tackle child poverty that the Scottish Government should have done nothing and left it to the Tories at Westminster – who have a dismal track record of tackling child poverty – is ludicrous.

“This flies in the face of Keir Starmer’s statement today that Labour has an alternative. Gordon Brown’s alternative is that we should sit back and wait for Westminster. Instead the Scottish Government has introduced a brand new benefit to tackle child poverty in just 18 months.

“If the Scottish Government had followed Mr Brown’s advice children in Scotland would be worse off. This is a UK Government that had to be publicly shamed into feeding hungry children and is ignoring calls to make the Universal Credit increase permanent to prevent 300,000 children from being plunged into poverty.

"Labour should get real and join us in calling for the UK to match the Scottish Child Payment which has been hailed as a ‘game-changer’ by anti-poverty campaigners and start realising that it is only independence that will give us all the powers and tools we need to meet to tackle poverty.”

The Labour Party did not offer comment.