Labour MPs boast about axing two-child benefit cap despite alarm over spiralling welfare bill – as Reform MPs ‘accidentally’ vote with Government

Labor MPs are boasting about the removal of the two-child benefit limit, despite growing alarm at the size of Britain’s spiraling welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer moved a step closer to ending the policy by using his huge majority in the House of Commons last night.

MPs voted 458 to 104, a majority of 354, to ensure the Universal Credit (Removing the Two-Child Limit) Bill passes at second reading.

It will be subject to further scrutiny by MPs and colleagues before it becomes law, but the Government has said it wants to scrap the two-child limit from April.

The policy introduced by the previous Tory administration is now It prevents parents from claiming Universal Credit or child tax credit for a third or additional child born after April 2017.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates that removing the cap would cost taxpayers £3bn a year by 2029/30.

An analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that: Lifting the cap will see 400,000 fewer children living in poverty this April than 12 months ago.

Both the Conservative and Reform UK majorities voted against scrapping the two-child benefit limit on Tuesday night.

However, it emerged that two Reform MPs had ‘accidentally’ sided with the Government.

Reform England’s Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick were recorded voting with the Government, amid reports that they had mistakenly entered the yes lobby

Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, two former Tory ministers who defected to Nigel Farage’s party last month, were ‘stranded because the doors were locked’ after accidentally entering the lobby, according to Sky News.

According to the Parliament’s voting data, it was noted that they later voted together with the Government.

If the bill becomes law it will mean that families will be able to receive the child element of Universal Credit for all children, regardless of family size.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said the two-child benefit limit had been using children as pawns for almost a decade.

He told MPs: ‘This was never about welfare reform, it wasn’t even about saving money.

‘No, this was always first and foremost a political exercise; It was an attempt to trap opponents, using children as pawns in a drill.

‘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.’

The Conservative Party has promised to reintroduce the policy if they come back to power.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately told the House of Commons that many families were ‘doing the maths’ on whether they should have more children.

He said: ‘Why should people on benefits avoid the difficult choices everyone else faces?’

His party colleague, former Conservative deputy prime minister Sir Oliver Dowden, echoed this, arguing that there was a ‘principle’ behind the policy: ‘Will people take responsibility for their own actions?’

He added: ‘Because there are thousands, millions of people who choose not to have any more children because they want to take responsibility for their lives and they don’t want the state to take responsibility.

‘And now with this change the Government is telling these people that not only will the state bear the responsibility, you as an individual will have to pay for it through higher taxes.’

Mr Farage had previously said he would support removing Reform’s two-child limit but later clarified it would only apply to families where both parents are British and work full-time.

Last month he said his party’s MPs would vote against lifting the border.