WE are now several weeks into a new parliament, after the public were forced to endure two months of a toxic general election campaign for the sake of a botched Tory power grab. The Prime Minister stares into the abyss of the damage caused by her government’s own cuts, as well as her self-made hard Tory Brexit.

That is the situation we now find ourselves in, and it is a situation that a majority of people in Scotland did not vote for. It is against the backdrop of years of failed austerity measures and the threat of the long-term instability of a hard Brexit that the SNP Westminster Group has taken the decision to merge our Social Justice and Economy teams to create an Inclusive Growth Team.

When the economy is discussed at Westminster, it is often abstractly referred to solely in terms of stats and economic jargon – brushing over what these mean for real people. It is with this in mind that we took the decision to reframe the economy to ensure that people are at the heart of it.

This matters now more than ever. We are living in unprecedented times where economic decisions are creating instability that is reverberating to the very core of our society. As a result we are seeing rising inflation coupled with the worst wage stagnation in 70 years, on top of frightening levels of household debt and continued cuts to social security creating a staggering loss of income.

Despite this, in a failed attempt to rebalance public finances, the Tories have pressed ahead with their ideological austerity agenda and reckless hard Brexit – meaning the UK faces downgraded growth projections, unachievable export goals, a devalued currency, a series of missed public finance targets, and underinvestment in our business sector.

These factors cannot be viewed in isolation from the personal impact they have on households across the UK. Rising inflation as a result of the Tory’s decision to pursue a hard Brexit is squeezing people’s incomes, making it harder to keep up with the daily cost of living. The Tories hard Brexit could also mean the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in Scotland over the next 10 years.

The Tories have used public-sector workers as ammunition in their own party civil war, with senior Cabinet Ministers hinting the public-sector pay cap would be eased before No. 10 ordered that the cap would remain. This is appalling behaviour from the UK Government and demonstrates a total lack of respect for our hard-working public-sector employees. The Scottish Government has listened to the public sector in Scotland and confirmed they will lift the cap in Scotland.

On top of this, the last Parliament saw the UK Government make cuts to benefits made with blind impunity. These included a £30-a-week cut for people claiming disabled employment support; a four-year benefit freeze which will reduce their real value by 5 per cent by 2020; and a two-child cap on Child Tax Credits which will see 600,000 three-child families getting around £2,500 a year on average less than before. Actions speak louder than words. These are not the actions of a government intent on building an inclusive economy.

With the Tories adamant in pursuing an austerity agenda in parallel with a hard Tory Brexit, it is becoming increasingly clear that we are descending into a perfect storm of personal crisis for families across the UK.

The SNP’s Inclusive Growth team will work tirelessly in the House of Commons to challenge the Tories obsession with austerity, and be a champion for policies which prioritise creating a sustainable, inclusive economy based on equality and fairness.