Childcare voucher changes delayed after Commons debate

Labour has pushed the government into agreeing to a six-month extension of the workplace childcare voucher system after using a parliamentary procedure to force a vote on a series of changes that ministers had hoped to put in place by directive.

However, as expected, the government won a vote on a parallel opposition motion that would have halted the imposition of an earnings threshold for free school meals.

The delay on the abolition of childcare vouchers, which Labour whips were predicting could lead to the policy being abandoned altogether, is another example of the party using Commons tactics to frustrate the government.

The vouchers policy, along with the free school meals changes and plans to amend free childcare for two-year-olds, were part of changes connected to the rollout of universal credit (UC) being passed via statutory instrument, which does not require a Commons vote.

But Labour secured a three-hour debate on the changes using a so-called humble address in which MPs can “pray against” proposals.

At the end of the debate Damian Hinds, the education secretary, vigorously defended the policies, but in response to an intervention by the DUP MP Emma Pengelly he said the childcare voucher abolition was being delayed.

Source: theguardian