MPs have passed a motion urging Boris Johnson to maintain the £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit, voting by a majority of 278 in favour of Labour’s non-binding motion on Monday evening.
Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of being “pathetic” over the payments worth £1,000 a year, and said families deserved certainty about their incomes during the pandemic. No 10 dismissed the opposition motion as a “political stunt”, but several Tory MPs are expected to rebel and side with Labour on the issue.
It comes as more than 20 Scottish fishing industry trucks – with slogans such as “Brexit carnage” – parked on the roads around parliament to protest Brexit red tape. Mr Johnson partly blamed Covid for the crash in sales – and also claimed some exporters were “not filling in the right forms”.
