Scottish Labour MP denies party split over two-child cap

Mr Sarwar has described the cap as “heinous” and said he would push Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to scrap it.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Radio 4’s Today programme that the policy is “condemning children to poverty”.

The Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland reported that abolishing the cap, which it estimated would cost £1.3bn a year, would lift 250,000 children in the UK out of poverty, including up to 15,000 in Scotland.

Introduced by the Conservative government in 2017, it has already affected over 80,000 children in Scotland and 1.5m across the UK.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said his government would tackle child poverty “with the same vigour” as the previous Labour government, led by Mr Brown until 2010.

It came in response to a question by SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who pointed to a call from Mr Brown ahead of the general election for Scottish voters to back Labour to end child poverty.

“Yet, last night, Labour MPs from Scotland were instructed to retain the two-child cap which forces children into poverty,” Mr Flynn said.