LABOUR deputy leader Angela Rayner has been told to explain why her party supports Tory policies giving bankers unlimited bonuses while capping benefits for families with more than two children.

The SNP issued the challenge as Rayner visits East Lothian in Scotland, an area the party said is home to 1600 children “impacted by the callous two-child cap and rape clause”.

Labour have been fire-fighting since shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC that her party had no plans to reverse Liz Truss’s policy removing the cap on bankers’ bonuses, which was brought in after the 2008 financial crisis.

Labour leader Keir Starmer had previously said he would keep the Tories’ two-child cap on benefits and the associated rape clause, saying that economic growth was his party’s number one priority.

READ MORE: Anas Sarwar called out as Labour back Liz Truss on unlimited bankers' bonuses

Scottish Labour group leader Anas Sarwar previously branded the removal of caps on bankers’ bonuses “economically illiterate [and] morally bankrupt”.

Asked on Wednesday if he stood by his comments now Labour backed the policy, Sarwar only repeated that it was wrong for the Tories to have done it.

Sarwar will be alongside Rayner as the two campaign in Scotland on Friday, and the SNP have called on the pair to explain their party’s position.

David Linden MP, the SNP’s social justice spokesperson at Westminster, said: "Angela Rayner really does have a brass neck arriving in a constituency where the callous two-child cap impacts 1600 children, just days after U-turning on Labour's bankers' bonus policy.

"Voters will rightly ask Labour's deputy leader: Does her party now prioritise the rich over those less fortunate?”

The National:

The SNP said that before the cap on bankers’ bonuses was lifted, four giant UK banks – HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Barclays – paid out around £4 billion in 2021 alone.

Linden went on: "Sir Keir Starmer is right when he says his party has changed: they no longer represent the hard working people on these isles.”

Rayner also took aim at the SNP ahead of her campaign visit to Scotland, claiming the government in Edinburgh was “distracted and tired”.

The deputy Labour leader is aiming to promote her party’s “new deal for working people”, which they claim will ban zero-hours contracts as well as fire-and-rehire practices, and abolish anti-trade union laws passed by the Conservatives.

During a visit north of the Border last summer, Rayner ruled out devolving employment law despite Scottish Labour claiming to support the policy.

Ahead of the visit, Rayner said: “The road to a Labour government runs through Scotland.

“The distracted and tired SNP has run out of road and offers Scotland nothing other than more division and decline.

“The SNP and the Tories want you to think that this is as good as it gets – they are wrong.

“With a Labour government, Scotland will have its voice heard and workers will get the transformative new deal for working people that will deliver for thousands of workers.”

Sarwar claimed that Scottish MPs would have a great influence on a Labour government in Westminster.

He said: “Every day more and more Scots are growing tired with the SNP’s politics of division.

“It is clear for all to see that Scotland is crying out for change and that only Labour can deliver it.

“The General Election will give Scotland the chance to lead the way in booting out the rotten Tory government and maximising Scotland’s influence at the heart of government.”