Zarah Sultana suspended from Labour after voting to scrap two-child benefit cap

Coventry MP Zarah Sultana has been suspended from the Labour Party alongside six others after voting to lift the two-child benefit cap.

The MP, 30, whose constituency includes the University of Warwick, had the party whip withdrawn on 23 July after voting for an amendment to the King’s Speech which called for a limit on child benefits to be abolished.

Her fellow MPs to be suspended from the party included the former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, and former leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey.

The seven will now sit as Independents in the House of Commons for six months, after which their statuses will be reviewed by the party.

I’m not interested in playing up to this macho virility test […] This isn’t a game. This is about people’s lives

Zarah Sultana MP

The two-child benefit cap, introduced in 2015 by the Conservatives, restricts the child welfare benefits that families are eligible for to two children per household.

There have been calls since the general election on 4 July for the new Labour government to remove the limit, which opponents say affects some 330,000 children.

The amendment to the King’s Speech, put forward by the Scottish National Party, would have made the goal a part of Labour’s legislative agenda for the year. It was defeated 363–103.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain the day after the vote, Ms Sultana described scrapping the limit as a “moral imperative” for the new government, citing a variety of groups who view the cap as a cause of child poverty.

She later told the Radio 4 Today programme that: “I’m not interested in playing up to this macho virility test that seems to be what people are talking about. It’s about the material conditions of 330,000 children living in poverty.

“This isn’t a game. This is about people’s lives.”

The Government, for its part, has maintained that immediately scrapping the two-child limit would represent an unaffordable spending commitment.

It has been suggested that lifting the limit could be an action taken later down the line, following the conclusion of a government review.

However, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, argued before the vote that there was “no silver bullet” for child poverty, insisting that there was a “complicated set of factors” around the issue.

Warwick Labour Society stands behind and fully supports Zarah Sultana

Ollie Chapman, Chair, Warwick Labour

Following Ms Sultana’s suspension, the Warwick Labour Society came out strongly in support of the MP, describing the penalty as a “complete disgrace” in a post on X.

Ollie Chapman, Chair of Warwick Labour, told The Boar that the Society “stands behind and fully supports Zarah Sultana in her decision to vote to scrap the two-child benefit cap.”

He said that while there were “many things to praise” in Labour’s poverty strategy, the failure to abolish the two-child cap was driven by a refusal to raise taxes on the wealthy, which he attacked as “disgusting, embarrassing, and shameful”.

Referring to the Government’s commissioning of a review of the policy, Chapman called this decision “dangerous”, adding that: “Children will suffer.”

He further asserted that Warwick Labour would continue to campaign for Sultana, who, although suspended, remains the MP elected for Labour in Coventry South.

Ms Sultana’s office was contacted for comment.