Labour MP among seven suspended after two-child benefit cap rebellion says 'I'm glad I did it'

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says he can't scrap the policy because of the state of the public finances, as ITV News Political Correspondent Shehab Khan reports

One MP who defied the government by backing an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap says she is "glad" she did it.

Zarah Sultana is among seven left-wing Labour MP's who were suspended last night, when Keir Starmer took decisive action against them for not voting with the government.

Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey, John McDonnell and Zarah Sultana have all been suspended from the party for six months.

Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, Zarah Sultana said she did not regret voting for the amendment.

“I slept well knowing that I took a stand against child poverty that is affecting 4.3 million people in this country and it is the right thing to do and I am glad I did it", she said.

Scrapping the two-child benefit cap is a "moral imperative" on the Labour Party, she insisted.

Apsana Begum, who also had the whip removed, said the decision was "ringing alarm bells for me on the direction of the government."

Begum told ITV News suspending seven MPs was an "aggressive and extreme" response.

During Starmer's first Prime Minister's Questions, he faced questions from two SNP MPs over his decision to suspend those who rebelled.

SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn criticised Starmer after former Labour PM Gordon Brown called for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.

"Five days before the general election, on the front page of the Daily Record, Gordon Brown instructed voters to 'vote Labour to end child poverty'. Yet last night Labour MPs were instructed to retain the two child cap... so prime minister, what changed?", he asked.

Another SNP MP, Pete Wishart, said "in less than three weeks, [Starmer] has had a significant rebellion, and he has suspended seven of his members of parliament, all for standing up for child poverty."

"Is his honeymoon over before it's even begun?", he asked.

In response, Starmer said "since the SNP came to power, there are 30,000 more children in poverty in Scotland", and mocked the party for losing so many seats to Labour in the election.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, who was one of the MPs to have the whip removed, said she was speaking "for my constitutents who have no voice in the hope that the government urgently helps them on this issue."

Meanwhile, independent MPs have said they are “looking forward to working with” those who were suspended.

A letter, signed by Ayoub Khan MP, Adnan Hussain MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Shockat Adam MP and Iqbal Mohamed MP, condemns the Labour leadership for putting "party before country" and welcomes more Independent voices in Parliament who are "free to speak out against inequality and injustice without fear of repercussion from their party whip."

“As the two major parties fail to defend the bold changes this country desperately needs, we will be there to offer a real alternative – and to defend a society that cares for each other and cares for all," the letter continued.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper wouldn't be drawn on the issue, saying "these matters of course are for the chief whip."

"The vote was on the King's Speech which sets out the plans to implement Labour's manifesto from the election we had just a few weeks ago", she said.

The vote marked Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's first Commons rebellion, but with such a large majority, the government comfortably defeated calls to scrap the cap.

The House of Commons voted 363 to 103, majority 260, to reject the amendment tabled in the name of SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.

Slow clapping could be heard in the chamber after the result was announced.

Keir Starmer has been under mounting pressure to scrap the policy, which restricts child welfare payments to the first two children born in most families with some exceptions. The prime minister and his cabinet say the state of the public finances means they cannot afford to abolish the benefit limit without economic growth.

Speaking in interviews on Monday, the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson signalled a softening of the government's position on the policy.

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Phillipson said the possible scrapping of the limit would be looked at by a new taskforce she is leading with Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall as part of a review of potential policies to reduce child poverty.

In a speech at the Farnborough International Airshow, Starmer was asked about the pressure to scrap the two-child limit, saying "it's good we're having a debate about it."

The PM said "I'm not surprised there's a real passion about this in the Labour Party."

The cap, introduced in 2015 by then-Conservative chancellor George Osborne, restricts child welfare payments to the first two children born to most families.

A report from the End Child Poverty Coalition in June found child poverty rates are directly and strongly correlated with the percentage of children affected by the two-child limit in the local area.

It argued that this provides “further evidence that the policy is a key driver of child poverty”.

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