Labour in chaos at start of by-election campaign as Rutherglen and Hamilton West candidate vows to campaign against ‘heinous’ two-child benefit cap – despite Keir Starmer saying he’d keep it as PM
- Michael Shanks puts himself at odds with Labour leader at his campaign launch
Labour splits over benefit policy were further exposed today as the party’s by-election candidate put himself at odds with Sir Keir Starmer.
Michael Shanks, who is standing for Labour in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West contest, vowed to campaign against the ‘heinous’ two-child benefit cap.
This is despite Sir Keir having recently stated he would keep the measure in place if he becomes prime minister after the next general election.
Mr Shanks also said he was opposed to the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ even though shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out a Labour government keeping it in place.
The Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election has been triggered by ex-SNP MP Margaret Ferrier being kicked out of the House of Commons by local voters.
She was subject to a recall petition after being suspended from Parliament for breaching Covid rules.
Michael Shanks, Labour’s candidate for the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, vowed to campaign against the two-child benefit cap – despite Sir Keir Starmer saying he’d keep it
SNP candidate Katy Loudon, pictured campaigning with party leader Humza Yousaf last month, took aim at Labour’s split over benefits policy
The Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election has been triggered by ex-SNP MP Margaret Ferrier being kicked out of the House of Commons by local voters
At the launch of his by-election campaign today, Mr Shanks insisted he would fight against the two-child benefit cap even if it puts him at odds with Sir Keir.
‘It’s a heinous policy, dreamt up by a Conservative Party out of touch with people’s priorities,’ he said.
‘Scottish Labour is opposed to the two-child cap, we’ll continue to oppose it and I’ll campaign against it.’
The two-child benefit cap was introduced by former chancellor George Osborne, who announced the measure in 2015.
It prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third or additional child born after April 2017.
Sir Keir himself had previously called for it to be scrapped when he was campaigning to be Labour leader in 2020.
But he has since U-turned and last month said Labour was ‘not changing that policy’ if they were in government after the general election.
It saw the Labour leader suffer a backlash from among his MPs and left-wing supporters.
Asked why he was seeking election within a party that has said it will not remove the cap, Mr Shanks replied that Labour was committed to other reforms of benefits that would put more money in people’s pockets.
‘I’ll be fighting for a whole suite of measures to lift people out of poverty like Labour did when they were last in government,’ he said.
On the subject of the bedroom tax, Mr Shanks said he was opposed to that policy as well but suggested Labour might be unable to get rid of it while trying to balance the public finances, should the party win power.
‘I don’t think the bedroom tax is a good idea and I would be campaigning against that,’ he said.
‘But the reality is we’re going to inherit an economic mess from the Conservative Party and it’s right that an incoming Labour government is responsible with fiscal policy.
‘We can’t just announce spending commitments before we’ve decided where the money would come from.’
Pressed on whether people in his constituency could be assured he would vote against policies backed by his national party leader, Mr Shanks replied: ‘I will campaign for the abolishment of both these things because they are heinous policies.’
Katy Loudon, the SNP’s candidate in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, took aim at Labour’s split over benefits policy as she launch her own campaign.
‘The voters of Rutherglen and Hamilton West have a really stark choice,’ she said.
‘They can either vote for an excellent SNP MP who will stand up for them and stand up for Scotland.
‘Or they can have a Labour MP that will do Keir Starmer’s bidding and back cruel Tory policies that have seen tens of thousands of children – many of them in this constituency – plunged into poverty.’
Ms Ferrier became SNP MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West in 2015 when she beat the Labour incumbent in the seat.
She narrowly lost the seat to Labour at the 2017 general election, but then took it back two years later in 2019.
The 62-year-old was kicked out of the SNP after she was revealed to have broken Covid rules.
Earlier this year, the Commons’ Committee on Standards recommended Ms Ferrier be suspended from Parliament for 30 days for damaging the reputation of the House.
The length of the suspension led to the recall petition, which opened on 20 June and closed on Monday.
South Lanarkshire Council announced last night that 11,896 of local voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West had validly signed the petition.
This was 14.66 per cent of the electorate in the constituency, which passed the 10 per cent threshold for removing Ms Ferrier from the Commons.
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