Labour’s Blair McDougall has denied the party is split on scrapping the two child cap, insisting it is “something we want to do.”

The new MP for East Renfrewshire told the BBC: “Lifting kids out of poverty is what Labour governments do, it’s in our DNA.”

Sir Keir Starmer saw off a rebellion on Monday night, when just seven of his backbenchers supported an SNP amendment to the King’s Speech calling for the welfare limit to be axed.

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The group - which includes former shadow chancellor John McDonnell - have all been suspended for six months.

The cap brought in by George Osborne means that households claiming child tax credit or universal credit are unable to claim for a third or subsequent child.

The only exemption for families is if a third child is the result of “non-consensual conception.”

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the policy currently affects two million children, with more hit each year because it applies to those born after April 5 2017.

Next year, 250,000 more children will be affected, rising to 670,000 before the end of the next parliament.

When fully rolled out, it will affect one in five children, rising to 38% of those in the poorest fifth of households.

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Scottish Labour has previously made their opposition to the cap known, with Anas Sarwar describing the policy as "heinous" and calling for it to be scrapped. Though he has always argued that doing so depends on the state of the economy.

Mr McDougall told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I grew up in a single-parent family that relied on benefits, so for me this is a very personal matter.

“We’re giving them the hope that when they go into work they can be paid enough to support their families, that they can have regular hours, that they can afford their energy bills again. And that is a huge step forward for those families.”

Speaking about the vote, he added: “What we did last night was we voted for a King’s Speech which will do an enormous amount to lift children and other people out of poverty, and we voted against an amendment which criticised the Government for not having lifted the two-child cap after just 18 days.”

Asked about ending the cap, he said: “We were always clear that this is something we want to do, lifting kids out of poverty is what Labour governments do, it’s in our DNA.

“But we were also very clear in the election and very clear last night that that has to be paid for somehow and we know the public finances are an absolute mess, that is what we have been left by the Tories.

“So this is a question of fixing the public finances so we can begin to do the things we would like to do, like lifting the two-child cap.”

While he insisted Labour wants to axe it, “the question is one of affordability at the moment”.

“Everybody in the Labour Party is clear this is something we want to do,” he said.

“We expect it to be done as quickly as is possible, but it is contingent on getting the wider economy sorted out.

“I have faith this is a Government which will go the extra mile for these kids. I know myself and all the other Labour MPs I speak to are pushing the Government to do this as quickly as is possible.”

Mr McDougall was also clear that MPs “knew that to vote against the whip, there are always consequences”.

“It was a handful of MPs and they have been dealt with in the normal way,” Mr McDougall said.

Zarah Sultana, one of those who lost the whip, defended voting agains the government. She told the BBC’s Today programme: “I’m not interested in playing up to this macho virility test that seems to be what people are talking about.

“It’s about the material conditions of 330,000 children living in poverty.

“This isn’t a game. This is about people’s lives.”

She also told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I slept well knowing that I took a stand against child poverty that is affecting 4.3 million people in this country and it is the right thing to do and I am glad I did it.”

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Kim Johnson, another Labour MP who tabled a similar amendment on scrapping the two-child benefit cap, which was not selected, said she voted with the government “for unity.”

She added: “The massive strength of feeling is undeniable. It must be a priority for our first budget.”

Former Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth defended the decision to remove the whip, saying it was no surprise that colleagues who failed to support the party's King's Speech in 14 years were disciplined. 

He also accused the seven rebels of “gesture” politics, saying: “To join with the odds and sods, who are pretty impotent in Parliament, they knew there was no chance of this amendment passing.”

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said that Labour had “failed its first major test in government”. He added: “Labour MPs had the opportunity to deliver meaningful change from years of Tory misrule by immediately lifting thousands of children out of poverty — they have made a political choice not to do so.

“This is now the Labour government’s two-child cap and it must take ownership of the damage it is causing, including the appalling levels of poverty in the UK.”