Stephen Flynn has called on Scottish Labour MPs to back his amendment to end the two-child benefit cap.
In what has been billed as a “test” of the Labour Party’s pledge to deliver real change and eradicate child poverty, Mr Flynn has cross-party support for his amendment set to be voted upon on Tuesday.
The SNP Westminster Leader’s call comes after Anas Sarwar claimed to support SNP calls for the Prime Minister to immediately scrap the cap.
With the crunch vote this week, the amendment is backed by the SNP, Plaid Cymru, Green Party, SDLP, Alliance Party, and independent MPs, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The two-child cap fallout has dominated the Labour Government’s first King’s Speech after Sir Keir Starmer faced a fierce backlash following his cynical attempts to kick the issue into the long grass by launching a ‘taskforce’ instead of simply scrapping the two-child cap immediately.
On Sunday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves again refused to lift the two-child benefit cap despite Labour MP Zarah Sultana saying that doing so is “a matter of political will” and Labour “can fund this commitment if we want to.”
New figures published by Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) found 1.6 million children are impacted by the Labour government’s two-child benefit cap – with families losing up to £3,455 a year per child.
The charity found 300,000 children would be lifted out of poverty, and a further 700,000 would be in less deep poverty, if the two-child cap was abolished.
In June, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) published its own analysis warning the two-child limit will affect 670,000 additional children by the end of this parliament unless it is scrapped.
Commenting, Mr Flynn said:
“We’ve worked constructively with other groups in Westminster to deliver a cross-party movement to scrap the child benefit cap but, sadly, no Labour MP from Scotland appears willing to join these efforts.
“Anas Sarwar and his Labour MPs in Scotland have said the cap should go, and our amendment gives them the opportunity to put those words into action – it’s a fairly easy test for them to pass should they wish to do so.
“The two-child cap was the Tories operating at their worst, so scrapping the cap would deliver on the promise made to the public for real change.
“Every child poverty charity in Scotland and beyond recognises that this policy penalises children and keeps them rooted in poverty.
“We’ll vote to do the right thing by those bairns and I would encourage other Scottish MPs to do likewise.”
