LOTHIAN East’s MP joined the vast majority of his Labour Westminster colleagues on Tuesday evening in voting against removing the controversial two-child benefit cap, as seven Labour MPs had the whip suspended for voting to ditch the policy.

The cap prevents almost all parents from claiming Universal Credit or child tax credit for more than two children.

While Douglas Alexander, who represents the bulk of East Lothian at Westminster, said “living in poverty scars children’s lives and their futures”, he voted against scrapping the benefit cap.

His Labour colleague, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh MP Chris Murray, also voted against scrapping the cap.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn MP had tabled a King’s Speech amendment calling for the cap to be scrapped.

Following the vote, Mr Alexander, who was elected Lothian East MP earlier this month and is Minister of State at the Department for Business and Trade, acknowledged that “too many children living in poverty are in working households”.

But he said that he had “voted for a King’s Speech that will do an enormous amount to lift children and other people, especially working families, out of poverty”.

He told the Courier: “We also voted against an amendment that criticised the Government for not having lifted the two-child benefit cap after only 18 days in office.

“We know the two-child cap is having a harmful impact on people, which is why the Government’s new child poverty taskforce will explore how best to tackle that over the next few months. It is also clear that the public finances have been left in a significant mess by the previous Conservative Government and that is going to take time to work through.”

Former shadow ministers John McDonnell, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon joined Labour colleagues Apsana Begum, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Zarah Sultana in voting for the SNP motion calling for an end to the two-child cap – all have now had the Labour whip suspended for six months and will sit as independents during that time.

Afterwards, Ms Sultana said she believed scrapping the cap was vital to tackle child poverty, adding: “This isn’t a game. This is about people’s lives.”