IT has been depressing but not surprising that shadow chancellor Mel Stride has defended the two-child benefit cap in recent days.

This measure means that low-income families can only claim tax credits or Universal Credit for their first two children.

In his defence of this dreadful cap, Stride implied that people on benefits had to make the same choices as working people in terms of cost-of-living issues.

However it will be an inconvenient truth to Stride that official figures indicate that 57% of the households affected by this cap come from households where at least one parent is working. Therefore this dreadful policy applies to both people on benefits and people who are working.

It is time for Stride and his allies in the mean-spirited modern-day Tory party to stop making divisi

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