Zarah Sultana: 'Keir Starmer hasn't spoken to me in two and a half years'

By Michael Baggs (with Emily Maitlis)

MP Zarah Sultana tells Emily Maitlis why she voted against her party on plans to not scrap the two-child benefit cap.

In brief...

• Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South, was suspended from the Labour Party for six months after voting against the party line on scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
• The Labour Party instructed MPs to vote against the SNP motion to remove the cap due to budget constraints.
• Sultana criticises a lack of healthy dialogue within the party, emphasising the need for immediate action to address child poverty and suggesting funding solutions such as a 2% wealth tax on assets over £10 million.

Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South and newly independent after losing the Labour whip for voting against the government in this week's vote on the two-child benefit cap, has said healthy dialogue within the party "is missing".

A motion was brought by the Scottish National Party (SNP) to scrap the two-child benefit cap, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, which prevents low income parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for their third or any subsequent children, if they were born after 5 April 2017.

In its election manifesto, Labour promised to tackle "poverty and inequality" and said it would "develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty".

But in the Tuesday night (23 July) vote, Labour whips instructed party MPs to vote against the SNP motion, owing to budget constraints currently faced by the new Labour government.

Sultana was one of seven MPs who rebelled, voted with the SNP, and was then subsequently suspended from the Labour Party.

The suspension is expected to last for six months.

Zarah Sultana on her suspension from the Labour Party

She told The News Agents that there is "widespread consensus" in the Labour Party on scrapping the scheme.

"Everyone in the Labour Party that I've spoken to you wants to scrap the cap. Keir Starmer himself wants to scrap the two child benefit cap," Sultana tells Emily Maitlis.

"But yesterday, clearly the Labour leadership felt that voting in that way was unacceptable."

She says the fallout from the vote, which saw Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Imran Hussain and Apsana Begum also suspended from the Labour government, reflects how MPs are treated in the House of Commons.

"I think there's a wider conversation about how authoritarian or heavy handed withdrawing the whip was," she continues.

"I've been trying to have conversations with the party for a long time. There are cases where I’ve been simply trying to get a bigger office so I can pray in, and I haven't had a response in two and a half years.

"Keir Starmer hasn't spoken to me in two and a half years. So in terms of conversations, and creating a healthy dialogue within the party where you can, in a healthy way, debate and have different opinions, that culture is missing."

When quizzed on why, when she was aware that Labour eventually wants to scrap the two-child benefit cap but feels unable to do so immediately, she did not follow and follow party line, Sultana said "a single day that continues where those kids continue to live in poverty is a day too long."

"I find waiting quite difficult when I know that 10,000 children in my constituency live in poverty," she says.

"So we can act, and we should act now, rather than wait for some point in the future.

"If we are moving in that direction, why not make an announcement today or before the amendment to say we are committing to scrapping the to Child Benefit cap and we can fund that because we are going to tax the very richest in our society to be able to do so?"

The MP adds that she believes everyone in the Labour Party, including Keir Starmer, cares about children in poverty, but that the party needs to "make actions" to end it.

Sultana has said the new government needs to "look at the balance sheets again" to find the money to end child poverty now.

"There are policies that you can adopt," she adds, calling for a 2% wealth tax on assets over £10 million and a change to capital gains laws.

"The money is there. It's a matter of political will."

Listen to the interview in full on The News Agents.

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