SCOTTISH comedian Frankie Boyle has torn into a Labour MP who posted a picture “celebrating” keeping the two-child benefits cap in place – alongside multiple people giving the middle finger.
Labour MP Deirdre Costigan shared an image of herself smiling alongside a group of Labour activists and politicians along with the caption “celebrating putting country before party”.
The image and caption was originally posted by Labour councillor Joshua Garfield late on Thursday, just hours after his party voted down an SNP amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which affects 1.6 million children in the UK and is seen as a key driver of child poverty.
As well as Costigan and Garfield, other senior Labour figures are also in the image, including Shama Tatler – who was controversially installed as a Labour General Election candidate after Faiza Shaheen was ousted – and Abdi Duale – who sits on Labour's national executive committee.
Labour have come under heavy fire for the photo, with Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle among those to condemn it.
“Very tricky to judge the tone when you’ve just voted against benefits for children, leaving untold numbers of them in poverty, but I think this has nailed it,” Boyle quipped, sharing Garfield’s image.
Karl Hansen, the editor of the Tribune, shared a zoomed part of the image highlighting the people giving the middle finger.
He wrote: “A message to the half a million children who would have been immediately lifted out of poverty if the two-child cap had been abolished.”
University of Glasgow historian Ewan Gibbs commented: “What you have to realise is that for lots of these people, ‘beating the Trots,’ keeping the left down and owning the SNP is what matters.
“The consequences of politics are a distant second to the process and finally getting a shot at crowing about winning in Westminster bars.”
Niall Christie, who stood for the Greens at the General Election, commented: “If the Tories were celebrating a vote keeping children in poverty like this it’d rightly be on the front of national newspapers.”
The National contributor Owen Jones wrote: “This is the Labour leadership faction celebrating suspending MPs for voting to lift little kids out of squalor and misery.”
Labour have been asked for comment.
As the photo continued to draw condemnation, Labour NEC member Duale claimed the celebration had nothing to do with the vote on the two-child benefit cap that had happened just hours before.
Garfield also made the claim, writing: "This photo is of some friends after a summer reception celebrating the Labour victory three weeks ago.
"I haven't passed comment on parliamentary votes – this reception was long planned and unrelated. People drawing their own conclusions are making a lot of assumptions."
