Labour MPs have urged Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child benefit cap after the SNP moved to ditch the controversial policy in Scotland.
First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney said the Scottish Government would act because it “can’t wait” for Labour at Westminster to axe the cap on a UK-wide basis.
In an apparent bid to embarrass Labour, Mr Swinney said that if Starmer’s party made any efforts to block the change then “the people of Scotland will simply never forgive them.”
A number of Labour MPs have been keen to see an end to the cap brought in by the Tories in 2017, which prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third child.
But a rebellion on the issue in July saw seven MPs on the left of the party suspended for six months for backing an amendment to scrap the cap and voting against Starmer’s government.
Labour MP Kim Johnson – who said she voted with the Government at the time “for unity” – told The i Paper that the SNP administration had taken “bold action to tackle poverty at its very core”, adding: “Our Labour government must show the same courage and commit to eradicating child poverty”.
The MP for Liverpool Riverside said scrapping the two-child cap “is the fastest way to lift hundreds of thousands of families out of poverty overnight”.
Johnson added: “I urge the UK Government’s taskforce to follow Scotland’s lead when it reports back in the spring. Poverty is and always will be a political choice.”
Another Labour MP said: “It isn’t right that English children in poverty could be treated worse than Scottish children. The PM needs to change direction.”
The backbencher said that most Labour MPs, and Scottish Labour MSPs, remain keen to get rid of the cap as soon as possible.
John McDonnell, one of the seven suspended over his part in the rebellion on the issue, also urged Labour to follow SNP’s lead.
The ex-shadow chancellor said “Now that the cap is being scrapped in Scotland I’m hoping that the UK Government’s taskforce on poverty, when it reports in the New Year, will also recommend as a first step the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap [in the rest of the UK].”
Rosie Duffield MP, who sits as an independent after quitting Labour in September, said it was inevitable that Scottish Labour would have to support the SNP’s move.
“It does put pressure on the Labour Government, as Scottish Labour colleagues now get to vote in line with long-held Labour views on the cap, which we’ve all campaigned to scrap since it was first introduced by George Osborne,” she said.
SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison announced the plan to end the cap in 2026 at Wednesday’s Scottish Budget – but did not spell out how much it would cost or whether there would be top-up payments for families on low incomes.
She said the Scottish Government would work throughout next year so it can be ditched in Scotland in early 2026, challenging the UK Government to provide the relevant universal credit data.
The gambit puts Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and his group at Holyrood in an awkward position. Sarwar has previously said that the two-child benefit cap is “wrong” and vowed to press Starmer to ditch it as soon as the public finances allow.
Sarwar said on Thursday that his party would “work constructively” with the SNP on ending the cap in Scotland – saying that it is a policy that “ultimately we agree on”. But he also described it as “a policy without a penny”, since it had not yet been costed.
“It’s become an almighty mess for Labour and puts Anas Sarwar in a very difficult position,” said former Scottish Labour MSP Neil Findlay.
“I’m dumbfounded by the fact that Starmer didn’t scrap it at their first UK Labour Budget. Starmer should be setting out a plan to get rid of it as soon as possible,” said Mr Findlay, director of the campaigning social enterprise Unity Consulting.
Others think Starmer and Sarwar should continue to highlight the fact that the SNP has not set out any detail on how exactly the rules will be changed in Scotland.
“The SNP proposal is a sham,” said Scottish Labour peer George Foulkes. “They haven’t worked out how to do it or pay for it. It will unravel and backfire on them so Anas and Keir need to expose it as such.”
Grilled on the issue on Thursday, Starmer said scrapping the two-child benefit cap is not the only answer to ending child poverty.
Asked at a press conference if he will follow the SNP’s move, the PM said his Government was working on a wider strategy. He added: “I know it’s easy to think there’s one silver bullet.”
A Labour source said they would “engage constructively” with the Scottish Government but described the plan as “empty words from the SNP designed to deflect from their shocking record on child poverty”.
They added: “Meanwhile the UK Labour government is getting on with developing an ambitious strategy with our cross-government child poverty taskforce because we believe that no child should be in poverty and all children deserve the best start in life.”
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