Letter from Mark Langabeer, Hastings and Rye Labour member
Within three weeks, a back bench revolt has unfolded over the failure of the new government to immediately scap the cruel two-child cap on benefits. Seven Labour MPs voted for an amendment to the King’s Speech, which had been tabled by the SNP.
Starmer decided to withdraw the whip from all seven for six months, which means they are excluded from Parliamentary Labour Party. According to reports, a further 42 Labour MPs have abstained, but it is not clear how many of them were simply away from the Commons on business.
But knowing the feeling among many Labour backbenchers, and the mood among the Party membership, the leadership have put forward the idea of a ‘task force’ for dealing with child poverty. In my opinion, it may not be wrong to investigate the causes of child poverty, but most of them are well known and the lifting of the benefit cap would immediately give relief to the families of over 400,000 children.
The real reason for not choosing to lift the cap immediately, we’re told, is cost, but the Tory backbenchers have long argued that couples should not have children they can’t afford – irrespective of the fact that both parents might be working, and they introduced this policy as a means of punishing the poorest in society.
The Tories argued that taxpayers shouldn’t bare the expense of larger families and that is exactly what Starmer is now saying. Is there evidence that poorer families were having more children before the cap was introduced? If there is, I’ve yet to see it!
Driving children into poverty is victim blaming. There are too many jobs that simply don’t pay enough to live on and in any case, family circumstances often change: divorce, sickness, redundancy are just some of the reasons for larger families needing financial support.
The basis for suspending the ‘seven‘, was that they were supporting an amendment from another party but Sarmer is been fond of saying that ‘country should come before Party’. The seven rebels should get the support of the whole labour movement and resolutions for their reinstatement should be passed in the trade unions and Constituency Labour Parties.
