![\"Analysis\"](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\")
The Tories believe they are on solid ground over benefitspublished at 12:27 GMT<\/p>\nThe Tories believe they are on solid ground over benefitspublished at 12:27 GMT<\/p>\n
12:27 GMT<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/03d99cb6-a5de-4492-993c-b613bbf2581f.jpg.webp.webp\")
Phil Sim
Scotland political correspondent<\/p>\n
The big topic the Scottish Conservatives see as setting themselves
\napart from other parties is the welfare system.<\/p>\n
The SNP prides itself on having set up a more generous social
\nsecurity safety net which is easier to navigate, and in their phrasing invests
\nmore in the people of Scotland.<\/p>\n
But Russell Findlay argues that it is too easy to
\nobtain benefits, and that the system needs to be cut back.<\/p>\n
So the case of Sally Donald, dropped as an SNP candidate amid
\nheadlines about benefit claims, is an absolute tap-in for the Tory leader –
\nespecially given John Swinney was recently pictured at her adoption night in
\nEdinburgh.<\/p>\n
Swinney stressed that an investigation is ongoing – and we should
\nnote that Donald denies any wrongdoing – which he said is proof that the system
\nis working.<\/p>\n
But the debate moved on pretty quickly to the broader issue, with
\nFindlay branding the welfare system \u201cunaffordable, unfair and unsustainable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Swinney hit back calling the Tories the \u201cnasty party\u201d and saying
\nthey want to take benefits away from the vulnerable.<\/p>\n
The SNP will presumably have a new candidate for Edinburgh
\nSouthern in place fairly quickly.<\/p>\n
But this ideological dispute between the Tories and SNP about the
\nwelfare system is an unbridgeable gap, and a row that will play out right
\nthrough the election campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tories believe they are on solid ground over benefitspublished at 12:27 GMT 12:27 GMT Phil SimScotland political…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-459063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}