Sir Keir Starmer claims victory after amendments calling for Labour to end of two child benefit cap, were rejected at the party’s national policy forum.
The SNP has challenged Anas Sarwar to explain why the Labour Party National Policy Forum (NPF) has rejected amendments to end the Tory two child cap – and what role Scottish Labour Party representatives played in the decision.
Kirsten Oswald MP said the Labour Party decision to keep the two child cap, which has been widely condemned by children’s charities and anti-poverty campaigners, shows “the SNP is the only party offering real change with independence – and real help with the cost of living”.
The SNP Women and Equalities spokesperson questioned whether Scottish Labour Party NPF representatives had been “completely ignored” over the decision – or whether they had “broke their promise and failed to vote against the two child cap”.
It follows claims by Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie that Scottish Labour would oppose the two child cap and persuade the UK Labour Party to change its policy. Jackie Baillie MSP and Daniel Johnson MSP are among the Scottish Labour Party representatives on the NPF.
Last week, Anas Sarwar claimed “we will continue to press any incoming UK Labour government to move as fast as they can within our fiscal rules to remove this heinous policy” – and Jackie Baillie told BBC Good Morning Scotland “I am very clear, and Scottish Labour is very clear, we remain opposed to the two-child benefit cap and I will do everything in my power to encourage my party to do exactly that.”
Responding to the NPF decision on twitter, SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn MP said: “20,000 Scottish kids in poverty. Didn’t Scottish Labour tell us they were going to ‘press’ for this heinous policy to be scrapped? Head Office in London clearly didn’t get the memo.”
Anas Sarwar must come clean over the Labour Party’s formal decision to keep the Tory two child cap. Either Scottish Labour Party representatives were completely ignored – or they broke their promise and failed to vote against the two child cap, which was it?
KIRSTEN OSWALD MP (SNP Women and Equalities spokesperson)
This shameful decision shows the SNP is the only party offering real change with independence – and real help with the cost of living.
In contrast, the pro-Brexit Labour Party is consigning thousands of children to poverty – and becoming indistinguishable from the Tories on key issues including Brexit, welfare cuts, cuts to public services, attacks on devolution and denying Scotland’s right to choose our future.
At the next election, voting SNP is the only way to secure independence, tackle the cost of living, and get rid of unelected Tory governments for good.
