If you wanted an idea of where the noisiest opposition to Keir Starmer’s government will come, the list of amendments to the King’s Speech is pretty handy.
As I reported last week, there are a lot of amendments on the two-child benefit cap from different groups. The Greens have got one, independent MP Shockat Adam has tabled his own (also signed by the Greens and other independent MPs including Jeremy Corbyn), and the SNP have got theirs. Then there’s the amendment from within Labour, tabled by left-wing MP Kim Johnson. It currently has 29 signatures, of which 19 are Labour backbenchers. One of them, Rosie Duffield, created waves at the weekend by calling the two-child benefit cap ‘social cleansing’ – a term we haven’t heard since the last big row over benefits under the Conservatives.
The Speaker won’t select all of these amendments for a vote, but selecting the motion from Kim Johnson will make it much more difficult for other Labour backbenchers to vote against it.
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