MPs to vote on two-child benefit cap

The SNP amendment has been signed by 21 MPs – including some from Plaid Cymru, the Green Party, the SDLP, the Alliance Party and three independents, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

However, some backbench Labour MPs could also choose to vote in support of the move.

A vote is expected at 19:00 BST, at the end of the debate on the King’s Speech, which set out the government’s priorities for the months ahead.

Labour’s former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he would back the SNP amendment.

In a video posted on X, he said: “I don’t like voting for other parties’ amendments but I’m following Keir Starmer’s example as he said put country before party.”

Kim Johnson and Rosie Duffield are among 19 Labour MPs who signed another amendment on the issue.

On Monday, Ms Johnson, who has led Labour calls for the policy to be scrapped, said the government to set out a “clear timetable” for doing this.

“It’s not a question of whether we can afford vital policies to alleviate child poverty, such as lifting the two-child cap, it’s a question of whether we can afford not to,” she said.

“This punitive policy needs to be consigned to the dustbin of history where it belongs.”

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: “Keir Starmer must not fail his first major test in government by refusing to scrap the cap. It is the bare minimum required to tackle child poverty – and to begin to deliver the change that people in Scotland were promised.

“Labour MPs have a choice today. They can lift children out of poverty by voting for the SNP amendment to abolish the cap – or they will push children into poverty by keeping it in place.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the government could not tackle the “dire inheritance” from the Conservatives overnight.

However, she said Labour was “determined to make a huge difference” on tackling childhood hardship.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank has estimated, external that removing it would eventually cost the government £3.4bn a year, roughly 3% of the total budget for working-age benefits.