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The SNP amendment has been signed by 21 MPs – including some from Plaid Cymru, the Green Party, the SDLP, the Alliance Party and three independents, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. <\/p>\n
However, some backbench Labour MPs could also choose to vote in support of the move. <\/p>\n
A vote is expected at 19:00 BST, at the end of the debate on the King’s Speech, which set out the government’s priorities for the months ahead. <\/p>\n
Labour’s former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he would back the SNP amendment. <\/p>\n
In a video posted on X, he said: “I don’t like voting for other parties’ amendments but I’m following Keir Starmer’s example as he said put country before party.”<\/p>\n
Kim Johnson and Rosie Duffield are among 19 Labour MPs who signed another amendment on the issue. <\/p>\n
On Monday, Ms Johnson, who has led Labour calls for the policy to be scrapped, said the government to set out a “clear timetable” for doing this. <\/p>\n
“It’s not a question of whether we can afford vital policies to alleviate child poverty, such as lifting the two-child cap, it’s a question of whether we can afford not to,” she said. <\/p>\n
“This punitive policy needs to be consigned to the dustbin of history where it belongs.”<\/p>\n
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: “Keir Starmer must not fail his first major test in government by refusing to scrap the cap. It is the bare minimum required to tackle child poverty – and to begin to deliver the change that people in Scotland were promised.<\/p>\n
“Labour MPs have a choice today. They can lift children out of poverty by voting for the SNP amendment to abolish the cap – or they will push children into poverty by keeping it in place.”<\/p>\n
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the government could not tackle the “dire inheritance” from the Conservatives overnight. <\/p>\n
However, she said Labour was “determined to make a huge difference” on tackling childhood hardship.<\/p>\n
The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank has estimated that removing it would eventually cost the government \u00a33.4bn a year, roughly 3% of the total budget for working-age benefits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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