A call for faster and better financial support for businesses and workers during the coronavirus restrictions has been led by a Fife MP.
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath member Neale Hanvey urged the UK government to strengthen and accelerate delivery of promised help.
His letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer gained cross-party support with 35 other signatories from the SNP, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Alliance, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party.
Mr Hanvey and his co-signatories have asked the Chancellor to urgently tackle the lengthy delays that employers are facing in receiving the support promised last month.
"Businesses need substance not soundbites."
The Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP has also requested that the Chancellor extends support to everyone who was missed out in the original stimulus package. This includes those who have registered as self-employed within the last year and people who started jobs after 28 February.
Commenting, Neale said:
“The UK Government promised to do ‘whatever it takes’ to get us through this pandemic, but many businesses and those recently employed or self-employed are being left behind.
"I am urgently calling for more support to see our businesses through these troubling times.
“I have been contacted by many businesses in my constituency that are understandably concerned about what the future holds and have been left frustrated by the delays to the UK Government’s promised support.
“I am also aware of many other MPs, including Tommy Sheppard MP for Edinburgh East, who have written to the Chancellor in recent weeks and are yet to receive replies.
“Given these grave concerns about the delivery of the support packages, I call on the Chancellor to honour his commitment to “do whatever it takes” to deliver on that promise to the business community by accelerating the delivery of this much-needed support.
"Businesses need substance not soundbites.".
Story covered in The Courier, see here.