A TORY MSP has been called out for claiming to "lobby" their Westminster colleagues to keep an uplift to Universal Credit - and then voting against a Holyrood motion to reverse the cut.

An uplift to Universal Credit of £20 per week was brought in at the start of the coronavirus pandemic as millions were unable to work and lost jobs.

The uplift was cut by the UK Government yesterday, taking away £1040 per year for millions across the UK.

Ahead of the cut a motion in the Scottish Parliament called on the UK Government to reverse it.

The motion was brought by Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison and said that the £1040 cut could push 60,000 people into poverty, including 20,000 children.

WATCH: SNP minister shatters Tory MSP's defence of Universal Credit cut

South Scotland MSP Brian Whittle claimed on BBC Scotland's Debate Night that Scottish Tories had lobbied their colleagues in the Tory government to keep the uplift for "an extra six months" before his party was the only one to vote against a motion to reverse the cut.

The Scottish Conservatives were the only party to vote against the Holyrood motion with the party making up all of the 28 "against" votes with three of their MSPs not voting.

The motion passed with 88 of the 129 MSPs voting in favour, but the UK Government cut ultimately went ahead.

Whittle said on Debate Night: "I think across the board we all lobbied to keep the uplift, the £20 uplift, for an extra six months. I think they recognise that welfare is a hugely difficult issue to deal with."

Whittle went on to say in the programme that the uplift was brought in because of Covid and that "somehow or another we've got to balance the books" on the money used to support people through the pandemic.

He was asked by Debate Night host Stephen Jardine whether now was the wrong time to cut Universal Credit and said there was a "case to be made for some of it" to be maintained and that he would be willing to discuss it in Holyrood.

SNP MSP Neil Gray called out Whittle for saying that Scottish Tory MSPs lobbied their colleagues to maintain the uplift while he and his colleagues voted against a motion calling on the UK Government to maintain it.

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Gray said: "And while the Tory MSPs 'lobbied' for their MP colleagues (Douglas Ross must have lobbied himself) to abstain on cut to Universal Credit, Tory MSPs proposed amendment accepting need for the cut & were only party in Holyrood to vote against Scottish Government motion."

The SNP have hit out further at the UK Government cut to Universal Credit after Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries claimed that it will not push anyone into poverty.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and think tank the Legatum Institute estimated that the £20 a week cut risks pushing as many as 500,000-800,000 people in the UK below the poverty line.

The National:

SNP MP for Glasgow East David Linden said: “Now we have a member of the Cabinet refusing to acknowledge that people will be plunged into poverty as a result of the Universal Credit cuts, despite the wealth of evidence by leading organisations like the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Trussell Trust, the Resolution Foundation and others showing that that is exactly what it will do.

“The Tories are completely clueless. They are so out-of-touch with reality that they have no idea of the damage they are inflicting on families across Scotland and the UK - and that is seriously concerning, and dangerous.

“Comments like this from Tory ministers are why Scotland must have the right to decide its own future.”