COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Former shadow ministers Rebecca Long-Bailey and John McDonnell, who served on Jeremy Corbyn's front bench, were among the seven voting against the government



Seven Labour MPs have had the whip suspended for six months after voting against the government on an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell was among the Labour MPs who voted for an SNP motion calling for an end to the policy, which prevents almost all parents from claiming Universal Credit or child tax credit for more than two children.

Mr McDonnell backed the SNP motion alongside Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum and Zarah Sultana.

MPs rejected the SNP amendment by 363 votes to 103, in the first major test of the new Labour government’s authority.

Losing the whip means the MPs are suspended from the parliamentary party and will now sit as independent MPs.

Nearly all of the rebels were allies of the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who now sits as an independent MP and had put his name to the SNP motion.

In a statement on social media, external, Ms Sultana said she would "always stand up for the most vulnerable in our society", adding that scrapping the cap would "lift 33,000 children out of poverty".

Defiant Coventry MP Zarah Sultana has 'no regrets' after child benefit cap vote



A Labour MP who was suspended for supporting an SNP initiative to abolish the two-child benefit limit has expressed no regrets, stating she "slept well" after making the right decision.

Zarah Sultana, one of seven MPs to receive a six-month suspension from Keir Starmer, said she felt "glad" about her actions. This act of defiance marks the first significant challenge to the PM's authority amid widespread criticism over the Government's refusal to discard the controversial Tory policy impacting 1.6 million children.

While Labour chiefs claim that reversing the policy is financially unfeasible, Bridget Phillipson, a senior Labour figure, hinted earlier this week that the policy is under review. Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain, Ms Sultana declared she had no second thoughts about her stance, despite being notified of her suspension via email, arguing that it's a "moral imperative" for Labour to eliminate the cap.

She commented: "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."

Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain show she said: “In my constituency of Coventry South 10,000 children live in poverty. That’s one in three children. When I’m talking to parents and I’m talking to teachers, when I’m volunteering at the foodbank I am hearing these stories of kids who are going to sleep hungry at night, they are going to school learning on an empty stomach, they are returning to cold homes, they are missing out on experiences that every child should enjoy.”

She continued on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If scrapping the top isn't an urgent priority for a Labour government, we have to question what is. Every day it's in place, hundreds of thousands of children are enduring unnecessary poverty, and that is unacceptable in the sixth largest economy in the world."

"People will say, we don't have money to fund this. And that's simply not true. While workers have had their wages squeezed on public services have been slashed. And the Tories, we know the wealthy in our society have got richer."