The pair of Tory defectors tried to leave the aye lobby but got ‘trapped’, it is believed.
Robert Jenrick defected to Reform UK in January (Image: Getty)
Reform UK MPs Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick voted with Labour to scrap the two-child benefit cap, it has emerged. It is believed that the pair ended up with Sir Keir Starmer’s party in the aye lobby yesterday during the Bill’s second reading.
Ms Braverman and Mr Jenrick got on their phones trying to get instructions from Farage as to whether they should be there or not, a source told Sky News’s Beth Rigby, and they tried to leave but got trapped as the doors were locked. Reform has confirmed that this happened, adding that it was a “genuine mistake” and neither MP registered a vote. All other Reform MPs voted against the legislation.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “They’re Nigel’s problem now.” It comes as Mr Farage announced yesterday that Reform would cut the cost of a pint in British pubs by reinstating the two-child cap.
Suella Braverman also defected to Reform last month (Image: Getty)
Reform MP Lee Anderson said: “The loss of one pub is not just the loss of livelihood for a landlord, or the loss of a local employment hub. The loss of one pub is a loss to all of us as inheritors of a tradition dating back to Roman rule.”
He added: “Yet the Conservatives, and now Labour, have facilitated the closure of thousands of pubs over the last decade. Any contrition they show is false.”
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced the scrapping of the two-child cap in November as the Government aimed to appease backbench Labour MPs following a major rebellion over welfare plans.
The Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden, said the policy had seen children used as pawns for almost a decade.
He told MPs: “It (the policy) was never really about welfare reform, nor was it even about saving money.
Jenrick and Braverman are listed alongside Labour, Plaid Cymru and Scottish National Party MPs (Image: UK Parliament)
“No, this was always first and foremost a political exercise, an attempt to set a trap for opponents, with children used as the pawns in the exercise.
“This was all about the politics of dividing lines, dividing lines between so-called shirkers and strivers, between the old distinction of the deserving and undeserving poor.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS STORY AND IS BEING UPDATED….
