SNP by-election candidate Katy Loudon has committed to introducing a Private Member’s Bill to abolish the two-child benefit cap and rape clause within the first 100 days of becoming an MP, if she wins the backing of voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West.
The policy, introduced by the Tories and backed by the Labour Party, has hit 1620 children in the constituency according to the Child Poverty Action Group, and a total of 80,936 across Scotland.
Loudon has said that if the Labour Party in Scotland is serious about tackling child poverty, it will have “no reservations” about publicly backing the bill.
It comes as the SNP published new research, commissioned from the House of Commons Library, which shows scrapping the two-child benefit cap, and the bedroom tax, would cost a fraction of the £12 billion that Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves (below) has ruled out raising by taxing the wealthy to fund cost of living support for families.
Previously, Reeves claimed she couldn’t scrap the cap or the bedroom tax because: “It’s not something at the moment we have the finances to afford to be able to do.”
The cost of scrapping both policies is estimated to be between £1.85bn and £2.7bn for 2023/24.
Loudon said: “Within the first 100 days of becoming an MP, I pledge to introduce a Private Member’s Bill to abolish the abhorrent two-child benefit cap and rape clause.
“This is a simple, yet crucial, act that would show constituents I am willing to not only stand up for them, but protect the most vulnerable in our society.
"If the Labour Party in Scotland is serious about tackling child poverty they should have no reservations about publicly backing my plans to introduce this bill as an MP.
“Voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West must be in no doubt that a vote for the SNP is a vote to reject cruel Westminster policies such as the two-child cap, tackle the cost of living crisis, and deliver an MP who only answers to their constituents in Scotland – not Westminster.”
