THE Archbishop of York called for the removal of the two-child profit cap on Tuesday, on the identical day as seven Labour MPs were suspended from the party for voting for the limit to be scrapped immediately.
In a speech within the House of Lords, Archbishop Cottrell said: “There are measures on poverty within the King’s Speech that I welcome, particularly the Children’s Well-being Bill and the plans without spending a dime breakfast clubs, but I have to take this chance to hitch others in calling for the removal of the two-child limit to Universal Credit, since it is the largest driver of rising child poverty and has a big effect on trust in our democracy.”
Bishops have consistently called for the removal of the cap, which prevents most families on Universal Credit from receiving profit payments for greater than two children (News, 23 July 2021; News, 24 May).
Sir Keir Starmer has acknowledged that there is powerful feeling within the Labour Party on the difficulty, however the Government’s position is to attend for the report from a newly created child poverty taskforce before making a commitment to a plan of action.
On Tuesday, the SNP tabled an amendment which might commit the Government to right away removing the cap. It received cross-party support, including from the Green Party and the previous Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The Labour MPs who defied the whip and voted for the amendment are all related to the left wing of the party, and three — including the previous Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell — were members of his Shadow Cabinet.
The seven will now sit as independent MPs, and a choice about whether to reinstate them can be taken in six months, based on a report in The Times.
In an interview on Radio 4 on Wednesday morning, one in every of those that voted for the SNP amendment, the MP for Coventry South, Zarah Sultana, said that she “slept well knowing that I took a stand against child poverty”.
