Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey was among seven Labour MPs to support a bid by the SNP to scrap the two-child benefit cap in the Commons.
The bill, brought forward by Scottish National Party MP Kirsty Blackman, passed at first reading by 10 votes, with 89 MPs voting for and 79 voting against.
In July 2024, Long-Bailey was one of seven Labour MPs to have the whip suspended for six months after she voted against the government on an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Long-Bailey has been a consistent advocate for the removal of the two-child benefit cap and previously called the policy “cruel” and “ineffective.”
Appearing on the BBC Last year, she referenced Ewan MacColl’s popular folk song, Dirty Old Town, based on Salford, as she highlighted how poverty in the city is particularly rife.
She said: “Despite the profound changes seen by the city in the last 75 years, the financial struggles of so many families across Salford are relatively no different to those Ewan saw growing up.”
The two-child benefit cap was introduced by the Conservatives in April 2017. It prevents parents from claiming universal credit payments worth approximately £300 a month for more than two of their children.
Instead, any third or subsequent child born to family since has not been fully supported by the benefits system and only receives a weekly child benefit payment of £17.25.
The SNP’s Kirsty Blackman forced a vote on the issue through a 10-minute rule motion in the Commons on Tuesday. She, too, branded the bill as “cruel.”
The Conservatives said they could not support the motion, with one MP saying the cap is “fair to the hard-pressed taxpayer”.
Alongside Long-Bailey, fellow Labour MPs Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) supported the bill.
Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby), Imran Hussain (Bradford East), Jon Trickett (Normanton and Hemsworth) and Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) also voted to scrap the cap.
The Bill was also supported by Independent MPs, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and Apsana Begum, who lost the Labour whip after supporting a previous SNP intervention.
The UK Government has faced calls to scrap the limit since the party came to power last year, including from charities, backbenchers and former party leader Neil Kinnock.
Ms Blackman, the SNP’s work and pensions spokesperson, told the Commons: “If child poverty really was a priority for this Labour Government, the Prime Minister would have scrapped the cruel two-child cap on day one of his premiership. He has now had over a year to do so.”
She added: “Stop arguing about affordability.
“Scrapping the two-child cap will cut poverty at a stroke and is the most cost-effective way to do so. The two-child cap is cruel.”
She quoted Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who said in July last year that children had been “left behind” for too long, with no action to address the “root causes of poverty”.
Ms Blackman said that since Sir Keir’s statement, 100 more children a day have been pushed into poverty.
The Conservatives’ Peter Bedford (Mid Leicestershire) told the Commons he and colleagues could not support the Bill.
He said: “We oppose it because we fundamentally believe in two core principles – fairness and personal responsibility – I believe this Bill undermines both.”
He said the cap was introduced to stop the benefits system from being abused and it is “fair to the hard-pressed taxpayer”.
Mr Bedford added: “Removing this cap… would not foster fairness, it would penalise people we should be championing – working families who play by the rules.”
In addition to scrapping the cap, the SNP has called on the UK Government to abolish the bedroom tax and match the Scottish Child Payment UK-wide by raising the child and family elements of universal credit by £27.15 per child per week.
The SNP, backed by the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and independent MPs, previously forced a vote on the child benefit cap during the King’s Speech last year.
The push was defeated, with seven Labour MPs, including Mr McDonnell, having the whip suspended from the party after backing the SNP-led amendment.
Research commissioned by the SNP by the House of Commons Library showed that over the past decade, the number of children living in poverty in the UK has risen from 3.7 million (27%) in 2013/14 to 4.5 million (31%) in 2023/24. The progress of the bill can be viewed here.
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