A BILL seeking to scrap the two-child benefit cap has passed the first stage in the House of Commons.
The SNP’s Kirsty Blackman introduced the Child Poverty Strategy (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill.
It passed the first stage with 89 MPs voting for it, and 79 against, with the majority of Labour MPs abstaining.
The LibDems, Green Party, Plaid Cymru, Independent Alliance, DUP, SDLP, Alliance Party, and MP Brian Leishman, who currently has the Labour whip suspended, all gave backing to the legislation before the vote was held. It was introduced as a 10-minute rule bill.
Only seven Labour MPs backed the bill: Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long Bailey, Andy McDonald, Jon Trickett, and Nadia Whittome.
All of Scottish Labour's MPs, including Leishman, who sits as an independent, abstained on the vote.
It comes after research from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) found that next month the number of families adversely impacted by the policy, originally brought in by the Conservatives in 2017, will grow to one million.
Speaking as she introduced the bill, Blackman told MPs: "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's now had over a year to do so. Labour is supposed to be the party of the left.
"What more progressive policy could there be than drastically cutting child poverty overnight? The UK is the only country in the world that withholds state support from children based on there being more than two in a family."
She added that lifting the cap would bring 670,000 people “out of severe hardship immediately”, including 470k children.
"CPAG have said, abolishing the two-child limit is the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty, which is at a record level," Blackman added.
"Other experts and charities agree with this assessment. 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. How are we still having to argue about this?"
Blackman urged Labour MPs to support the legislation, telling the Commons: "This is a key test of whether the Labour Government is capable of the change they promised the electorate, or whether Labour MPs will keep following a Prime Minister who is making the same mistakes that have hammered families and seen support for the Labour Party collapse during his first year in office.
"Labour MPs must vote for this bill and send the Prime Minister a clear message that a radical change in direction is urgent and it's essential."
However, it was the Conservatives who spoke against the legislation, rather than an MP from the Labour benches.
MP Peter Bedford told the chamber: "My Conservative colleagues and I cannot support this bill.
"We oppose it because we fundamentally believe in two core principles, fairness and personal responsibility, and I believe that this bill undermines both.
He claimed the debate was “not about the principle of child benefit”, citing his own experience growing up in a single-parent family, but added: “This bill seeks to remove the two-child benefit cap, a cap introduced by the last government to address a spiralling welfare system that was at times being abused.
“Such a cap is fair to the hard-pressed taxpayer.
“Why should individuals already in receipt of state support gain additional benefit for having yet more and more children whilst working families who get up early, pay their taxes and take full responsibility for their lives do not, removing this cap would not foster fairness, it would penalise people.”
"We must be honest with the British people, this is a massive unfunded commitment that doesn't reward people for doing the right thing."
The second reading of the legislation was set for November 7.
Speaking after the vote, Blackman said: "Keir Starmer must now accept defeat, listen to Parliament and end the two-child cap.
"Today he instructed his MPs to sit on their hands and abstain, but despite his efforts our bill passed and the pressure to scrap the cap before the budget will only grow.
“What is absolutely shameful is that not a single Scottish Labour MP backed us today, leaving Scottish voters in no doubt that while Scottish Labour MPs lie down to their London Labour bosses, the SNP stands up for Scotland.
“By teaming up with the Tories in an attempt to defeat the SNP bill, spineless Scottish Labour MPs tried to impose austerity cuts instead of helping hard-pressed families who are struggling to keep their heads above water in broken Brexit Britain."
Several poverty charities have also backed the SNP's bid to remove the benefit cap.
The two-child cap was first introduced by Tory chancellor George Osborne at the 2015 Budget, and came into effect two years later.
The current cap blocks families from claiming the child element of universal credit for a third or subsequent child.
Women who became pregnant through “non-consensual conception” can be given an exemption if they can prove that is the case, known as the “rape clause”.
DWP statistics show that 59% of families impacted are working, and the majority of those who are not in employment, are not required to as they either have very young children or are ill or disabled.
The Scottish Government has already set plans in motion to scrap the cap north of the Border, with applications for a new benefit to offset it, the Two Child Benefit Payment, opening in March 2026.
