Boris Johnson news – latest: MPs vote against universal credit cut as PM blames fish exporters over Brexit chaos

The prime minister has been warned millions of families will be £1,000 a year worse off if the government scraps the increase

(REUTERS)

MPs have passed a motion urging Boris Johnson to maintain the £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit, voting by a majority of 278 in favour of Labour’s non-binding motion on Monday evening.

Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of being “pathetic” over the payments worth £1,000 a year, and said families deserved certainty about their incomes during the pandemic. No 10 dismissed the opposition motion as a “political stunt”, but several Tory MPs are expected to rebel and side with Labour on the issue.

It comes as more than 20 Scottish fishing industry trucks – with slogans such as “Brexit carnage” – parked on the roads around parliament to protest Brexit red tape. Mr Johnson partly blamed Covid for the crash in sales – and also claimed some exporters were “not filling in the right forms”.

Watch: PM - Brexit funding for fishing businesses

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