A SUSPENDED Labour MP has claimed that party whips threatened to withdraw her “domestic abuse support” if she voted in favour of lifting the two-child benefit cap.
Apsana Begum (below), who was among six other Labour MPs suspended for supporting an SNP amendment on the issue, made the claim to various outlets including Times Radio, where she said that she was told before the vote that “support for me as a survivor of domestic abuse was contingent on how I was voting”.
She added: “I've just had to run in an election in which my ex-husband was standing against me, and feeling like my experiences were being weaponised against me in this situation during the whipping operation was absolutely shocking and the fact that supporting me regarding my ex-husband was discussed in this context is completely unacceptable.”
Begum has previously been outspoken about her experiences with alleged domestic abuse.
Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate in 2022, she told MPs she had been in a marriage to a man which had become "volatile and abusive" and that he had continued to harass her after the relationship ended – allegations which have not been proven in court.
Begum is also a campaigner on the issue and is the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Violence and Abuse.
Her ex-husband Ehtasham Haque has called the domestic abuse claims "false and defamatory".
"I completely deny that at any stage I behaved inappropriately towards Apsana Begum during our marriage," he said.
Journalist and The National columnist Owen Jones (below) named Labour MP Anna McMorrin in a thread on Twitter/X as the assistant government whip who spoke to Begum – claiming the information came from two separate MPs.
Jones wrote: “It is reported that, on the day of the vote on the two child benefits limit, Apsana Begum mentioned to McMorrin that the General Election campaign was difficult.
“It is also reported that the general election campaign was difficult because her ex-husband was standing against her.”
He added: “McMorrin then reportedly said that in order to be supported, Begum needed to be a Labour MP – that is, not defy the Whip over the two child limit vote, and thus lose the Whip.
“It is also reported that Apsana told colleagues afterwards that she was shaken, and felt her request to not talk about this issue in this way was not respectful, and the whole thing had been wholly inappropriate.”
Members of the House of Commons voted 363 to 103, majority 260, to reject the two-child benefit cap amendment tabled in the name of SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.
The cap, introduced in 2015 by then-Conservative chancellor George Osborne, restricts child welfare payments to the first two children born to most families.
More than 40 Labour MPs recorded no vote, with some of those listed spotted in the chamber throughout the day, while others will have had permission to miss the vote.
