Seven Labour MPs have been suspended from the parliamentary party after voting against the government to call for the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.
Richard Burgon, John McDonnell, Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum, Zarah Sultana, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Ian Byrne have all had the whip suspended for six months, at which point the decision will be reviewed. The Labour rebels voted alongside the Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Plaid Cymru, the SDLP, the Alliance Party, and independent MPs like Jeremy Corbyn, backing an amendment to the King’s Speech proposed by the SNP.
Politics latest: First Tory announces party leadership bid. With a majority of more than 174, Sir Keir Starmer was able to see off the rebellion by 363 votes to 103. It was reported ahead of the vote that the rebellion could number in the dozens before rumours of threatened suspensions emerged.
Reacting to her suspension, Ms Sultana said: “I have been informed by the chief whip and the Labour Party leadership that the whip has been withdrawn from me for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which would lift 330,000 children out of poverty. I will always stand up for the most vulnerable in our society.”
One Labour MP who had campaigned against the two-child cap but voted with the government tonight said she did so because she was confident “the government are very much committed to delivering for those children living in poverty.”
A Labour source said that the decision was taken “to show that we expect Labour MPs to support the programme we were elected on.”
Mr McDonnell was a serial rebel under previous Labour governments.
What is the two-child benefit cap? In short, the measure prevents parents from claiming Universal Credit or a child tax credit for a third child, with a few exceptions. The cap was introduced by then-chancellor George Osborne as part of a raft of changes to the benefits system in 2015 but came into effect in April 2017. The amount a family is given to help with raising a child depends on their income, the size of their family, and their childcare costs. However, the cap has been blamed for a rising level of child poverty in the UK.
Starmer had previously said the cap should be scrapped, but he U-turned last year due to the state of finances Labour were set to inherit if they won the election. There had been hints of a change in position amid the pressure on Monday when Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the government was “considering” removing the cap, although it was a “very expensive measure”. It has been estimated that scrapping it would cost around £3bn.
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