Reform blunder as Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick vote with Labour on benefits | Politics | News

It has been revealed that UK Reform MPs Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick voted with Labor to scrap the two-child benefit limit. The pair are believed to have joined Sir Keir Starmer’s party in the yes lobby during the bill’s second reading yesterday.

A source told Sky News’ Beth Rigby that Ms Braverman and Mr Jenrick tried to get instructions from Farage over the phone about whether they should be there and tried to leave but were trapped because the doors were locked. Reform confirmed that this had happened, adding that it was a “genuine mistake” and that no MPs had voted. All other Reform MPs voted against the legislation.

Reform MP Lee Anderson said: “The loss of a pub is not just the loss of a homeowner’s livelihood or the loss of a local employment centre. The loss of a pub is a loss for all of us, heirs of a tradition dating back to Roman rule.”

He added: “Yet the Conservatives and now Labor have facilitated the closure of thousands of pubs over the last decade. Any remorse they show is wrong.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the removal of the two-child limit in November as she sought to appease Labor MPs after a major outcry over the government’s welfare plans.

Work and Pensions Minister Pat McFadden said the policy had seen children used as pawns for almost a decade.

He told MPs: “This (policy) was never really about welfare reform, it wasn’t even about saving money.

“No, this was always first and foremost a political exercise, an attempt to trap opponents, with children used as pawns in the exercise.

“This was all about the politics of splitting the lines between the so-called shirkers and the strivers, the old division between the deserving and undeserving poor.”

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