Commons vote to exempt more people Bedroom Tax passes

A vote in the House of Commons to reduce the number of people hit by the Bedroom Tax has passed after a huge turnout from Labour MPs. MPs, who are normally working in the constituencies on Fridays, have returned to Westminster or delayed their journeys in order to vote on the Private Members’ Bill.

The bill was put forward by a backbench Lib Dem MP and received wide support from the party, who have now changed their stance to oppose the measure.

When put to a vote, the second reading of the bill carried by 306 to 231. It will now go to the next committee stage of the legislative structure. Should it pass through into law, the bill would see disabled people exempted from the Bedroom Tax. The Tories opposed the exemptions.

Rachel Reeves afterwards reaffirmed Labour’s total opposition to the Bedroom Tax:

“The Government should scrap the hated Bedroom Tax following the overwhelming vote by MPs against the cruel tax on bedrooms today.

“David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s cruel and unfair Bedroom Tax has hit hundreds of thousands of people across the country causing misery, hardship and forcing families to rely on food banks. If the government won’t ditch the Bedroom Tax, then the next Labour government will.”

Over the coming months, many Labour candidates will be keen to point out that, while the Lib Dems vote to protect people from the Bedroom Tax now, only Labour have pledged to abolish it.

UPDATE: Some Labour MPs even moved around constituency appointments to make it down:

UPDATE II: 

Seems the SNP have put the Scottish referendum campaign ahead of getting rid of the Bedroom Tax. Two-thirds of their MPs didn’t bother to turn up to vote in today’s sitting, while Shadow Scotland Secretary Margaret Curran says “every Scottish Labour MP left the campaign trail today to come to Parliament to vote against the bedroom tax”. LabourList editor Mark Ferguson, who is in Scotland this week, also reports that after being out campaigning with them last night “loads of Labour MPs on the sleeper train last night, as well as flights last night/this morning” to make sure they could vote against the Bedroom Tax today.

So where were SNP?

UPDATE III: Ed Miliband has made a statement about the vote, slamming both David Cameron and Alex Salmond. This vote has worked out to be two birds, one stone:

“What this vote shows is that David Cameron is a Prime Minister whose authority is weakening day-by-day. He is losing his MPs, he is losing votes in the House of Commons and it is Labour which is setting the agenda for fairness.

“Alex Salmond tries to con people into thinking he stands up for social justice. What happened today is that the majority of his MPs did not even turn up. They could not be bothered to turn up to abolish the Bedroom Tax. It says it all about how Alex Salmond is trying to con people.

“By contrast every Scottish Labour MP was in the House of Commons voting to get rid the Bedroom Tax. It is a downpayment of what Labour will deliver in government in just eight months’ time: abolishing the bedroom tax, freezing energy prices, raising the minimum wage and getting young people back to work.”