Everyone was very keen to attack Labour at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, particularly over Keir Starmer’s decision not to scrap the two-child benefit limit. Before the session, SNP staffers handed out ‘controls on family sizes’ mugs to journalists in the Commons press gallery, a reminder of Labour’s disastrous 2015 ‘controls on immigration’ mug. Then SNP leader Stephen Flynn, and later Pete Wishart, both called the policy ‘heinous’. Flynn even said Scottish children were used to living in poverty, which prompted some ironic shouts from MPs on the other side of the house: the SNP has the power to change benefits policies anyway, but hasn’t scrapped the two-child limit on the grounds of affordability (the same argument Labour is making). Tory MPs also brought the Labour row up, and Sunak joked with Flynn that people didn’t need to worry too much, given Starmer never keeps his promises anyway.
Tory MPs in particular were noisier than usual today, presumably partly because they were just relieved they didn’t need to relive last week’s dreadful session from Oliver Dowden.
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