SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes has accused the Labour Party of ‘abandoning West Dunbartonshire families to poverty’ in a row over Labour’s backing for the UK’s child benefit cap.

The Clydebank and Dumbarton MP was speaking following a growing backlash against Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s admission that the party would keep the two-child cap and may keep other damaging Tory cuts.

The controversial policy prevents parents from claiming Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit for a third or additional child born after April 2017.

And new analysis - from the House of Commons Library - shows West Dunbartonshire is one of the worst hit areas in Scotland affected by Westminster’s ‘cruel’ two-child cap on benefits.

Latest figures show 57 per cent of households in West Dunbartonshire, who are in receipt of Universal Credit or Child Tax Credits, have been hit by the policy and did not receive support for at least one child.

Mr Docherty-Hughes said: “The Labour Party’s decision to back the Tories on the two-child cap is shameful.

“Sir Keir Starmer is abandoning thousands of families in West Dunbartonshire and across Scotland to poverty.

"Politics is about priorities. The SNP government has prioritised tackling poverty by introducing progressive policies like the Scottish Child Payment but the damaging policies of the Tories and pro-Brexit Labour Party are pushing children back into deprivation and undermining progress.

"The evidence is clear: the two-child benefit cap drags children into poverty, but also impacts working families – families who are already struggling to get by in Brexit Britain’s low-wage economy.

"The SNP will continue to challenge the UK government to act - but independence is the only way to secure real change and get rid of these damaging Westminster governments for good."

The analysis also revealed that 20,000 children across Scotland have been pushed into poverty this year as a result of the two-child cap.

Jackie Baillie, Labour MSP for Dumbarton, previously called for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped, comparing it to “China’s morally abhorrent one-child policy”.

But the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party defended her UK colleague and instead blamed the governments in Holyrood and Westminster for child poverty levels.

Ms Baillie countered: “Tackling child poverty is a priority for the Labour Party here in Scotland and across the UK.

“Policies agreed at the National Policy Forum include a reform of Universal Credit, a continuing review of social security to tackle poverty and alleviate the cost of living crisis and an ambitious child poverty strategy that will seek to end the scourge of child poverty across the country.

“As responsible politicians, we don't want to make pledges we can't keep and we don't yet know the true extent of the Tory financial mess that the country will be left in.

“The truth is that people are being failed by both the SNP and Tory governments. The SNP has failed to tackle child poverty. It is only Scottish Labour that remains determined to help those struggling with the cost of living.”