By John McDonnell MP

Today in Parliament is the last day of the debate on the King’s speech and the normal procedure is that there’ll be a number of amendments that are put up and will be voted upon.

The first will be a Conservative amendment, a general carping amendment about the incoming Labour government.

The second will be a Lib Dem amendment, which is quite a broad, sweeping amendment, and the third is an amendment from the Scottish National Party, specifically calling for the scrapping of the two-child limit on benefits. 37 Labour MPs like me put forward our own amendment to scrap the two-child limit, but that won’t be called.

So the only opportunity we’ll have to vote on the two-child limit will be on an SNP motion. I have some history on this measure. I was in Parliament in 2015 when it was introduced and I condemned it and voted against it then. It’s really iniquitous. It has forced large numbers of children into poverty and caused real hardship.

So I believe we should get rid of it at the first opportunity. And that’s why I’ll be voting for the SNP amendment. I don’t like voting for other parties’ amendments, but I’m following Keir Starmer’s example, as he said, to put country before party. So I’m putting lifting children out of poverty before party whipping or anything like that.

120 different organisations have called for the scrapping of the two-child limit and they comprise community groups, religious groups, churches, trade unions and, many in my own community. I think it’s a dreadful measure that the Conservatives introduced and we could lift – the latest estimate is – anything up to nearly 400,000 children out of poverty just by this one measure.

That’s why I think it’s important to vote for it today. The Government has set up a poverty task force, which is terrific, that will get to work now, and I’m hoping that it will address the scrapping of the two-child limit. But we need an absolute commitment on that and a timetable to do that rapidly so that our children no longer suffer this hardship and poverty.

We’re the sixth richest country in the world. We shouldn’t stand by and allow our children to be suffering in this way.

John McDonnell MP is the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington and former Shadow Chancellor. This is an edited transcript of a video he posted on X today.

Image: John McDonnell speaks at a rally called by Disable People Against the Cuts on July 17th. c/o Labour Hub.