People in Scotland “voted for significant and substantial change at Westminster,” at the election, Stephen Flynn has said, as he repeated calls for Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the two child benefit cap.

The SNP leader in the Commons said that this “promise of change must now be honoured, not broken, by the Labour government.”

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Mr Flynn was speaking ahead of the King’s Speech, due to be delivered today.

It is thought Sir Keir Starmer's legislative agenda will contain 35 bills, including Bills on setting up GB Energy, adding VAT to private school fees, and changes to workers’ rights.

Other measures likely to be included in the King’s Speech could include the reintroduction of Rishi Sunak’s proposed ban on anyone born after 2009 buying tobacco, and new legislation on spending rules, giving more power to the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR).

However, despite pressure from Labour backbenchers, poverty campaigners, SNP, the Lib Dems, Reofrm and the Greens, there will not be any changes to the two-child cap which stops households from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for a third or subsequent child.

The limit - brought in by George Osborne - currently affects two million children, with more hit each year because it applies to those born after April 5 2017.

Yesterday, Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister was asked why, despite criticism from colleagues and others the party was not changing the cap. 

She told the BBC: “We’re going to be reviewing Universal Credit and I think that’s important.

“Secondly, we’ve got a child poverty strategy, which is not just one lever. I accept that people are frustrated around the two-child cap. People are frustrated and they’re frustrated over 14 years, we’ve had 14 years of the Tories.”

She added: “We said it before we were elected that our number one priority is that if we cannot say where the money is coming from we will not make unfunded spending commitments and the Chancellor has been very clear about that. We said it before the election and we’re not going to change course now.”

Ms Rayner continued: “All I would say is look at what Labour’s history and what we do when we’re in government and as someone who grew up in poverty, I am not prepared to leave office after a Labour government where we haven’t made those significant changes and child poverty is an issue for us.”

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The SNP lost half a million votes at the election, with their share of the vote falling 15 percentage points to 30%. That saw the the party fall from 48 seats to just 9.

Labour picked up 37 seats, a huge increase on the one won in 2019.

The SNP will try to embarrass those new Scottish Labour MPs by bringing forward an amendment to abolish the two-child cap.

If selected by the Speaker it will then go to a vote. Given Sir Keir's massive majority there is no chance of it passing.

However, the SNP said any Scottish Labour MPs not backing their motion would need to "take responsibility for the child poverty they will cause if it stays in place."

Speaking ahead of the King's Speech, Mr Flynn said: "People in Scotland voted for significant and substantial change at Westminster - and that promise of change must now be honoured, not broken, by the Labour government.

"The decision over whether to scrap the two child cap is an early and important litmus test of whether the Labour government is capable of delivering the full scale change people in Scotland want to see - or whether it will impose the same damaging cuts and failed policies as the Tories.

"Eradicating child poverty is a priority for people in Scotland - and scrapping the two child cap is the bare minimum required. There is still time for Keir Starmer to see sense. If he fails, he will be making the political choice to push thousands of Scottish children into poverty. That is inexcusable.”

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The four newly elected Green MPs in Westminster will also put forward their own amendment, calling for changes to be made to capital gains tax to pay for the scrapping of the two-child cap.

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: “Every day we have children going hungry, unable to concentrate in school or struggling to ascertain even the very basics – this is the real world impact of child poverty.

“And so today we’re offering Labour a positive fairer taxation that will allow them to redistribute money from some of the wealthiest to some of the very poorest. This is a political choice that they must now make.”