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‘I REFUSE to accept that I live in a country that accepts that child poverty is normal,’ Apsana Begum, suspended Labour MP for Tower Hamlets said yesterday.
She was one of seven MPs who had the whip removed and were suspended from the Labour Party for six months after they voted in support of an SNP amendment to the King’s Speech, scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
Begum warned that the right wing Starmer move to retain the Tory benefit cap will come into conflict with the 12 Labour Party supporting trade unions which all support the scrapping of the two child benefit cap which was brought in by the last Tory government and which right up to the last few weeks before the General Election the Labour Party had pledged to remove as soon as they got into office.
In an immediate response in condemnation of the suspensions of the seven Labour MPs, Matt Wrack, Fire Brigades Union general secretary, said: ‘1.6 million children are affected by the two child cap, and 300,000 children live in poverty as a result of it.
‘The UK is a rich country with ample resources for everyone to live a decent life.
‘The seven MPs who voted to scrap the cap spoke for millions of trade union members and many Labour Party members.
‘Keir Starmer must restore the whip to them immediately.’
Lynn Perry, chief executive of the children’s charity Barnardos, condemned the Labour move, saying: ‘Most families receiving Universal Credit are in work and many are struggling for reasons beyond their control – such as a family breakup, the death of a partner or losing a job.
‘Yet this policy denies families the support they need to afford the basics so they have enough to eat and can afford to heat their homes properly.
‘Children are ultimately paying the price, growing up in poverty and dealing with the consequences of this for the rest of their lives.’
The Child Poverty Action Group condemned Labour for breaking its pledge to scrap the cap, saying: ‘The new government pledged an ambitious approach to tackling child poverty but there was little to help achieve that aim in the speech today.
‘The two-child limit is the biggest driver of rising child poverty… delaying its abolition will harm many more young lives and undercut the government’s poverty-reduction plans.’
Ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell backed the SNP motion alongside Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum and Zarah Sultana.
MPs rejected the SNP amendment by 363 votes to 103.
Losing the whip means the MPs are suspended from the parliamentary party and will now sit as independent MPs.
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