General view over Kirkcaldy housing estates
Kirkcaldy is one of the poorest areas in Scotland with staggeringly high numbers of child poverty. Many disadvantaged families, and vulnerable people, and over a thousand children are surviving below the breadline in Kirkaldy East, that is 40%. Voluntary organisations and foodbanks give over a thousand food parcels a month, several times more than a few years ago. The Conservative government’s policy of austerity together with the new ‘Universal Credit’ system which replaced six other benefits, makes millions of people poorer, many hundreds of thousands on the poverty line or below. Whilst people overall voted strongly against Brexit in Scotland, in other parts of the country, poorer constituencies voted largely for Brexit, in a vote against the City of London.