A SCOTTISH Labour candidate who works for a charity calling for an end to the two-child benefit cap has been urged to “stand up to her bosses in London” and do the same.
The SNP accused Kirsty McNeill, an executive director of Save the Children UK, of being silent since Keir Starmer’s U-turn on scrapping the so-called “rape clause”.
The Nationalists said Ms McNeil, who is standing in Midlothian at the general election, must say where she stands on the highly divisive issue.
Her campaign website opens with a statement saying: “In Midlothian there are 2,446 children living in poverty. That’s 2,446 childhoods I’m dedicating myself to changing.”
She adds: “I’ve dedicated my whole life to fighting poverty and making things fairer.”
Sir Keir said he would end the two-child limit when he ran for the Labour leadership in 2020, but this month said he was “not changing” the policy if Labour won the election.
Labour said it was unable to commit to reversing the measure because it expected to inherit an economic mess from the Conservatives if it entered No 10.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed on Friday it would not be in the manifesto.
The move has caused outrage among Labour MPs and MSPs for whom the two-child cap has become a symbol of heartless Tory austerity.
The cap limits child tax credit and universal credit for the first two children in a family unless a parent reveals any other children were conceived through rape.
Scrapping it UK-wide would cost £1.4billion and lift an estimated 270,000 households with children out of poverty.
Scottish Labour has said it wants the cap abolished when the public finances allow.
Ms McNeill, a former special adviser to Gordon Brown, was last year paid £118,000 as Executive Director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns at Save the Children UK.
The charity last week said it welcomed Sir Keir’s commitment to tackling child poverty but said this should start “with a commitment to scrap the two child benefits cap”.
Dan Paskins, the charity’s Director of UK Impact at Save the Children, added: "Not providing benefits for a third child is heinous.
“The 2-child-limit is one of the biggest drivers of child poverty, and now affects one in ten children living in the UK."
Owen Thomson, the SNP MP for Midlothian, said: “Kirsty McNeil must finally stand up to her bosses in London and condemn the cruel two-child benefit cap.
“It shouldn't have taken this long for an Executive Director at one of the UK’s leading charities - which aims to get children out of poverty – to condemn this U-turn, especially given the policy in question quite literally drags children into poverty.
“If Ms McNeil can’t stand up for children in poverty, one has to wonder what is the point of the Labour Party?”
Ms McNeill said: “As Mr Thomson has highlighted, I work each and every day to support children and families - and our country would be in a better place if the SNP was focused on doing the same.
"Scottish Labour is clear that the two-child cap is an incredibly damaging Tory policy and we continue to believe it should be scrapped.
“Under the SNP one in every four children in Scotland is living in poverty, the poverty-related attainment gap is stubbornly high, and our devolved social security system is in chaos.
“I was proud to work for Gordon Brown and a Labour government that took a million children out of poverty. We’ve done it before and we will do it again.”
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