Seven Labour MPs have faced punishment from their political party for voting to remove the UK’s two-child benefit cap. Opponents of the benefits cap have argued that it pushes women into abortions, and more children into poverty.
The cap limits state benefits — Universal Credit and child tax credits — to two children per family with exceptions. It applies to any child born after April 2017. One exception is that children born as a result of “non-consenual conception” (rape) would still qualify for the benefits, causing concern that women would have to prove to the government that they were raped.
According to the BBC, MPs John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum, and Zarah Sultana voted for an amendment penned by the Scottish National Party (SNP) to remove the benefit cap. As a result, the MPs “lost the whip” and now must sit away from the party and as independents for six months. Losing the whip means they are expelled from their political party, and according to the Right to Life UK, is one of the “strongest punishments a political party can inflict on one of its MPs.”
It is believed that this was a move by the Labour party to send a message to MPs that defiance to the party line will not be tolerated. The amendment ultimately failed in a 363 to 103 vote.
Sultana said she was not informed she would lose the whip if she voted to remove the benefit cap, but said having that knowledge would not have impacted her vote. “I’m not interested in playing up to this macho virility test that seems to be what people are talking about,” she said. “It’s about the material conditions of 330,000 children living in poverty. This isn’t a game. This is about people’s lives.”
READ: INHUMANE: New UK ‘two child limit’ targets low-income families, forcing them into abortions
There are currently 1.6 million children living with families who have been affected by the cap. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that removing the benefit cap would eventually cost the government £3.4 billion a year. However, the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland said that removing the cap would cost £1.3 billion and would help lift 250,000 children in the UK out of poverty. The government’s most recent response to poverty concerns was appointing a new child poverty task force to introduce free breakfast at schools.
Another concern is that the benefit cap is influencing some women to choose abortion for their additional children. A 2020 survey revealed that 57% of women who had an abortion between March and December of that year “said that the policy was important in their decision-making around whether or not to continue the pregnancy.” The survey was carried out by a UK abortion chain, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, and quoted one woman as saying, “[The two-child limit] was a big factor for me. My husband lost his job so we are on a very tight budget and when we looked at our finances we realised we coudn’t afford to have another baby.”
Another woman said, “If there was no two-chid limit I would have kept the baby, but I couldn’t afford to feed and clothe it… I’ve really struggled to come to terms with [the abortion].”
A third woman said, “I did something I never imagined I would ever do… But at the back of my mind all I kept thinking is how would I have managed financially… I had to do this.”
The two-child benefit cap took effect in 2017, and The Guardian reported that from 2016 to 2019, the number of women with two or more children choosing abortion in the UK rose by 16.4%.
“The extent to which our society discourages women from continuing with their pregnancies is saddening,” said Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right to Life UK. “We know that women feel pressured into having abortions for any number of reasons, and sadly, at this time, it appears that the two-child benefit cap is contributing to pressure on women to have abortions. We urge all MPs to prioritise policies that support families and protect the dignity of every human life, from conception to natural death.”
