SNP join push to scrap two-child benefit cap

The SNP has announced plans to join Labour rebels in trying to force the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Stephen Flynn, the SNP's Westminster leader, said his party will table an amendment to the King's Speech to end the cap - which prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third child, with a few exemptions.

The amendment has little chance of passing, but Mr Flynn also wrote to Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, calling on him to direct the party's Scottish MPs to join them in calling for the cap to be ditched.

Mr Flynn said the two-child cap is "pushing thousands of Scottish children into poverty" and ending it is "the bare minimum" required of the new government.

In the letter, Mr Flynn said it would be "simple" for the government to scrap the cap "immediately" but added this was "a political choice and it requires politicians, across parties, to demand better".

Appealing directly to Mr Sarwar, the SNP Westminster leader wrote that he was "willing to work together for the betterment of the people of Scotland", and claimed the cap was a good place for this work to begin.

Labour's landslide victory in the general election reduced the SNP's representation at Westminster to nine MPs.

The size of Labour's Commons majority also means it could easily see off even a significant rebellion of its own MPs, as well as opposition party votes.

The SNP hope to join Labour MPs who oppose the limit, which they say increases child poverty.

Some Labour MPs are hoping for a change of heart on Wednesday, when the new government formally sets out the laws it wants to bring in over the next year in the King's Speech.

Kim Johnson, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, has already said she plans to lay an amendment to the King's Speech calling for the cap to scrapped if plans do not change.

In a post on social media, Ms Johnson said the move would "immediately lift 250,000 children out of poverty".

The House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle holds the power to select amendments.

The prime minister has said he is “not immune” to those arguments but scrapping it is currently unaffordable.

Sir Keir has previously said he would scrap the two-child limit "in an ideal world".

Abolishing the two-child limit would cost the government between £2.5bn and £3.6bn, according to the Resolution Foundation, which said these costs were "low compared to the harm the policy causes."

The Conservative government introduced the policy in 2017.

The number of children affected by the two-child benefits cap increased to 1.6 million in the year to April, Department for Work and Pensions data shows, while 440,000 households had their benefits cut, an increase of almost 8%.