A NORTH-East Labour MP accused her own interim leader of turning her back on poor children after she sparked a revolt over welfare cuts.

Helen Goodman, the Bishop Auckland MP, led at least 38 Labour MPs who defied their own party leadership over big cuts to tax credits, announced by George Osborne.

The rebels demanded that Labour vote against the Welfare Reform and Work Bill next Monday because the Chancellor is “ignoring the plight of children in low-income working households”.

Harriet Harman, the interim leader, had announced Labour would abstain, because it should accept the removal of tax credits for more than two children, in future cases – to help win back the public’s trust.

Tonight (July 16), Ms Harman partially backed down, announcing she would also table an official amendment to the Bill, instead of urging Labour MPs to sit on their hands.

However, a revolt is still possible – because the leadership will only vote for its own amendment and not against the entire Bill, if that amendment falls.

Today, the MPs siding with Ms Goodman – a former social security spokeswoman – were revealed, including five from the North-East.

They are; Pat Glass (North West Durham), Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough), Ian Mearns (Gateshead), Grahame Morris (Easington) and Iain Wright (Hartlepool).

Speaking with The Northern Echo, Ms Goodman argued the Conservatives had “no mandate” to make the cuts, because they had hidden the detail of £12bn of reductions from voters, at the election.

And she said most of the victims of tax credit cuts would be families with someone in work, “doing their best to give their children the best start in life”.

Meanwhile, official figures showed that families with more than two children were 50 per cent more likely to be living in poverty than smaller households.

Ms Goodman said: “It’s particularly unfair to cut tax credits and that’s made worse by targeting those families with three or four children.

“We want to see child poverty coming down, but you can’t just will the ends – you have to will the means first. There are things fundamentally wrong with this Bill.”

Asked if Ms Harman had failed to stand up for poor children, Ms Goodman replied: “Yes, her position is illogical and everybody is surprised by what she said.”

At the weekend, Ms Harman said she had met many families who told her they would love to have more children but “just can't afford it”.

And she said: “They're working hard and they feel that it's unfair other people can have bigger families that they would love to have if they were in the position to do that. Now we have to listen to that.”

At Westminster, Conservative Commons Leader Chris Grayling taunted Labour over the “mounting rebellion at their leadership’s attempt to claim that they support our reforms”.