Two-child U-turnlong overdue

AFTER years of SNP campaigning, the Tory Government have finally announced they will U-turn on their abhorrent plan to extend the two-child cap and rape clause to children born before April 2017, which was due to be implemented on February 1.

I’d like to pay tribute to my SNP colleague Alison Thewliss MP, who first discovered this cruel policy hidden inside George Osborne’s Budget in 2015, and has been at the forefront of the campaign to scrap it ever since.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s announcement of a U-turn is a welcome, if long overdue, admission that this cruel Tory policy is deeply flawed – something that MPs, women’s charities and the wider public have been saying for years.

But this minor change does not go far enough. The vast majority of families hit by the two child cap will still suffer and hundreds of thousands of children will be pushed into poverty.

Having accepted the policy is unfair for some families, the UK Government must scrap it for all. If they are unwilling, they must devolve the powers to the Scottish Parliament so the SNP Government can get on and do it ourselves.