The Keir Starmer landslide at Westminster has received considerable press coverage. Making changes to planned legislation will not be easy given the huge majority that the Prime Minister enjoys and the constraints imposed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. But an early challenge is beginning to emerge.
This week will see an amendment to the King’s speech proposed by the SNP. This amendment calls on the two-child benefit cap and the associated rape clause to be scrapped. The call to action is motivated by a desire to increase incomes of parents in poverty and end an overtly misogynistic aspect of welfare provision.
Green, Plaid Cymru, SDLP, Alliance, and independent MPs are expected to vote alongside the nine SNP representatives and Labour backbenchers including Zarah Sultana and Rosie Duffield, who have been vocal in their support. For those of us in Scotland the important question is will Scottish Labour's MPs join them?
The campaign to scrap the cap has been around for many years with feminists and women’s organisations taking the lead in calling on politicians to end the policy. This was supported early on by some SNP MPs including Alison Thewliss who gave voice to the anger from activists and organisations who knew what the impact of this policy would be and understood the political dimensions of this issue. Protests were held in Glasgow and Edinburgh in 2017 and 2018, as covered in these stories (click here).
The fact the cap and rape clause are still in place reflects the limitations of a Westminster system to listen, represent and make meaningful change. Now the Labour Party is in Government, the importance of their fiscal rules will be tested against overturning some of the most abhorrent policies of the Tories. Ensuring that ‘change’ translates from shiny leaflets to people’s lives will be brought into sharp focus. The fact that pressure is having to be put on the Labour Party to scrap this policy is in itself a disappointment and an illustration of how far the Labour Party leadership have strayed from the values of the labour movement. The two-child cap is not just about child poverty but is also about the stigmatisation of working class women and children in an attempt by the Tories to shift attention away from those in our society who are wealthy and don’t pay their way. For the Labour leadership to fail to see this is an early indication of their distance from the lives of most people.
All but one of Labour MPs, Ian Murray, are new. Taking action to make change cannot be left to those that sit in the UK Parliament. All of Scotland’s 57 members of parliament should be pressurised by civil society organisations and us as constituents to scrap the cap.
Find your MP, new or otherwise, and let them know how you expect them to vote. The amendment's prospects may be slim, but the bigger the revolt the more pressure will be put on Labour’s planned child poverty taskforce.
Published 22 July 2024.