Start the clock on a Labour U-turn over the two-child benefit cap. Few think the policy is good within the party, and yet retaining the cap is policy. Something will have to give.
For now, it is seven Labour MPs who rebelled on the King’s Speech last night in order to vote for an SNP amendment which would scrap the cap. The group, which is on the party’s left and includes former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, were swiftly suspended. It’s like when Boris Johnson removed the whip from 21 liberal conservatives in 2019, except this time it’s over a policy the senior ministers have said is bad (Angela Rayner has called the cap “obscene”); it’s not a defining showdown which would shape the constitution for a generation.
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