Two-child cap is wrong

Scots Labour leader on early talks with PM about ending poverty and Scotland's future

- PAUL HUTCHEON

ANAS Sarwar has demanded Keir Starmer's new UK Government gets rid of the Tory two-child benefit cap - branding the cruel policy "wrong".

The Scots Labour leader said the benefit crackdown on families with more than two kids "needs to be reversed" in an exclusive interview with the Daily Record.

He revealed he has also held early talks with the Prime Minister and his team on securing the future of the troubled Grangemouth plant, which is threatened with partial closure.

Sarwar spoke to us yesterday during his first trip to London after Labour's landslide election win. His party jumped from winning one seat in 2019 to 37 on July 4, a sizeable contribution to Starmer's massive majority.

Sarwar and Starmer were pictured outside Downing Street with the Scottish Labour team after a win based on dozens of gains from the SNP. The Glasgow MSP wants the PM to deliver on key policies for Scotland ahead of the next Holyrood election in 2026.

One thorny issue is the two-child benefit cap, which affects 87,000 Scots kids and which campaigners say keeps children in poverty.

Starmer refused to commit to its abolition during the election on the grounds of cost, but Sarwar wants the policy scrapped as part of an upcoming review of Universal Credit.

He said: "We want the review of Universal Credit. We want to create the financial conditions where we can move on the two-child limit.