The Joseph Rowntree Foundation today asks:

Will party manifestos meet Scotland’s child poverty targets?

and opines straight-off:

All parties have published their manifestos for the 7 May Holyrood elections, but they fall well short of the action needed to meet child poverty targets, leaving the next Scottish Government to match rhetoric with action.

The researchers, above, base this largely on reading the manifestos and giving all the benefit of the doubt as to whether they might deliver them.

This is hugely naive or predisposed to not consider what the SNP has done in Scotland with Labour in Wales and in England so as to avoid praising them.

Surely any half-baked researchers would consider that key factor, what have they actually done when the had a chance to do it? Isn’t that a good guide to whether they tend to deliver their manifestos on issues like child poverty?

It’s easy.

First, another think tanks says Labour will clearly not deliver.

Institute for Fiscal Studies’ shocking revelation – Scottish Labour does not have a plan to reduce child poverty

Despite signalling that Scottish Labour wants to see falls in child poverty, the manifesto proposes little new cash support for families with children beyond additional support for childcare. The policy to increase the Scottish child payment to £40 a week for children under one is already planned by the outgoing government for 2027–28, as is the plan for breakfast clubs in primary schools. Whilst there is a plan to ‘review’ the earnings threshold for free school meals in secondary schools, there is no firm commitment here. Substantial increases in benefits of the scale likely needed to achieve the ambitious statutory child poverty targets in Scotland are lacking. https://ifs.org.uk/articles/initial-response-scottish-labour-manifesto

Second, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, themselves (!) but three different researchers in November 2025:

Child Poverty in Labour Wales predicted to be nearly 60% higher than in Scotland by 2029 placing more than 100 000 in poverty who would not have been with SNP policies

The above from the three different Joseph Rowntree Foundation researcher above is shocking. That in only Scotland will child poverty have reduced by the next Westminster election in 2029, is deep condemnation of the governments in the other three nations. What this means is that child poverty in Wales will be 57.8% higher and, in England, it will 44.5% higher, than in Scotland.

Remember that these percentage differences mean that more than a million out of the current total of nearly 4 million in England and more than 100 000 out of the quarter of a million in Wales, could be taken out of poverty if SNP policies were applied there – especially the Child Payment of £27.15 per child per week, lower rents, lower council tax, free bus fares, free prescriptions, free tuition and others.

Two different sets of researchers at the JRF but clearly not sharing even though they are researching the same topic? Bizarre.