Sir Keir Starmer faces his first Prime Minister’s Questions since the Labour landslide victory in the general election. Sir Keir and Rishi Sunak’s roles will be reversed, with Mr Sunak asking the questions instead of answering them in his new role as leader of the opposition. Sign up to our Politics newsletter Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.
Expect the fall-out from last night’s two-child benefit cap vote to feature heavily - seven Labour MPs were suspended for six months for voting against the government. Politics LIVE: Sir Keir Starmer faces first Prime Minister's Questions Key Events Sir Keir Starmer faces PMQs for the first time since becoming Prime Minister Seven Labour MPs have been thrown out the party over a vote on the two-child benefit cap No question from Stephen Flynn MP after bruising SNP election result Who are the rebel MPs? Seven Labour MPs voted against the government on the two-child benefit cap. They’ve all since been suspended and will sit as independent MPs for the next six months.
This includes ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell, former shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum and Zarah Sultana. The Alba Party says the Scottish Government must now mitigate the two-child benefit cap when it sets its budget at the end of the year. Ash Regan, the only Alba MSP in Holyrood, says this would cost £100 million or 0.
2 per cent of the Scottish budget. She says there was a budget underspend of £347m last year, which could be used to mitigate the two-child benefit cap. Ms Regan said: “It is a scandal that in energy-rich Scotland, we have one in four children living in poverty in 2024.
“Lifting children out of poverty should be a national mission above party politics. “My motion allows the Scottish Government to set an example for the new Labour UK Government and pressure them to lift the two-child cap in their first budget. “The SNP at Westminster is calling for this, yet at Holyrood they won’t back the same campaign led by Alba.
“I am calling on my former SNP colleagues to show that Holyrood can be competent and ambitious again by working together constructively to prioritise lifting Scotland’s children out of poverty - the root cause of so many of our society’s challenges. The SNP are not the only ones unhappy at the two-child benefit cap vote. The Scottish Greens have released a statement saying it is a “shameful start” to Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure as Prime Minister.
Maggie Chapman MSP, the party’s social security spokeswoman, said: “He and his colleagues have chosen to continue one of the most appalling Tory legacies and condemn hundreds of thousands of children and their families to totally avoidable poverty. “The two-child cap is a disgraceful policy and has no place in any humane social security system. “It is based on inflicting humiliation and punishment on some of the most vulnerable people in the country - we don’t need a review to tell us that.
“There are no excuses - this cap is a disgrace and it must be scrapped.” SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has spoken out this morning after last night’s vote on the two-child benefit cap. He said: “The Labour Party has failed its first major test in government.
“Labour MPs had the opportunity to deliver meaningful change from years of Tory misrule by immediately lifting thousands of children out of poverty - they have made a political choice not to do so. “This is now the Labour government’s two-child cap - and it must take ownership of the damage it is causing, including the appalling levels of poverty in the UK. “The SNP will campaign vigorously for the cap to be abolished at the earliest opportunity.
“It is the very worst of Westminster’s welfare cuts, and every day it remains more children suffer. “The Labour government has a moral duty to go much further and faster to tackle child poverty. “Scrapping the cap is the bare minimum we should expect.
“In order to eradicate child poverty, the UK Government must take much bolder action, including matching the Scottish Child Payment UK-wide by raising Universal Credit by £26.70 per child, per week at the UK budget.” Let’s take a look at what the SNP has had to say about last night’s vote on the two-child benefit cap.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn tabled the vote, which was defeated by 363 votes to 103. He now says “the Labour Party has failed its first major test in government” and said they have made a “political choice” to keep thousands of children in poverty. The party has published new analysis by the House of Commons Library, which estimates 87,100 children in Scotland live in households hit by the two-child benefit cap over the last year.
This is a total of 1,486,760 children across the whole of the UK. And using data from the Department for Work and Pensions, the SNP says this costs families £287.92 a month, or £3,455 a year for a family with three children.
This jumps to £575.84 a month and £6,910 for a family of four. While I’ve got you here, have you signed up to The Steamie morning politics newsletter? It gives you an overview of what is happening in Scottish politics, along with our headline stories, what our columnists are up to, and a what’s on diary every single weekday morning.
You can sign up for this newsletter for free here: https://www.scotsman.com/newsletter There’s been an early rebellion in the Labour ranks - last night seven Labour MPs were suspended.
This was over a vote on the two-child benefit cap, pushed forward by SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn. Labour said they don’t have the money to remove this cap, but that hasn’t stopped seven MPs voting against the government. It was defeated 363 votes to 103 and the seven MPs have been suspended for six months.
Good morning - I’m Rachel Amery, The Scotsman’s political correspondent and I’ll be manning the live blog this morning. Plenty coming up today to keep an eye out on, not least Sir Keir Starmer facing his first PMQs since the general election. We’re used to seeing Starmer versus Sunak in the House of Commons, but after the landslide victory for Labour in the general election, those roles will be reversed.
This time around it will be Rishi Sunak in his new role as leader of the opposition who will be asking the questions, and Sir Keir Starmer who will be answering them. It’s also going to be an interesting one because there has been some rebellion in the Labour ranks - last night seven were thrown out of the party after voting against the government on a vote on removing the two-child benefit cap. The SNP also won’t have a weekly question after their bruising election result - I’m sure SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn would have liked another opportunity to criticise the Prime Minister over the two-child benefit cap.
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