A GLASGOW MP is one of a group of politicians urging David Cameron to scrap the tax credits 'rape clause'.

Members of nine political parties, including SNP MP Alison Thewliss, have sent an urgent letter to David Cameron asking him to "do the right thing" over the controversial policy.

The Government plans to restrict tax credits to the first two children from 2017, but MPs have raised concerns for women who become pregnant with a third child as a result of rape.

Women in this situation would have to justify their position to officials to avoid losing the payments, which MPs say is immoral and stigmatising to victims.

The letter has been signed by members of the Lib Dems, Labour, Tories, Plaid Cymru, Greens, Ulster Unionist Party, Democratic Unionist Party and the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and demands clarification on the issue.

It reads: "We implore you, Prime Minister, to do the right thing and scrap the rape clause today.

"MPs from numerous parties have repeatedly raised concerns about this policy with Ministers at every level of Government - including yourself.

"However, we feel that there is still, unfortunately, not enough actual clarification as to how this policy would work in practice, let alone the more fundamental fact that it is simply immoral and has no place in twenty-first century Britain."

The group of MPs said it was their "sincere belief" that the policy "was perhaps not fully considered or thought through when it was added to the Government’s budget."

They added: "Therefore, we do not believe that the Government genuinely wants to summon women who have been raped, to appear before Government officials and prove that they were raped, leading to the birth of their third child."

Alison Thewliss, who represents the Glasgow Central constituency, said: "I am incredibly grateful to colleagues from across the House of Commons who have chosen to stand with us as part of the campaign to scrap the rape clause.

"The fact that MPs from all the major parties in the House have put their differences aside to unite on this important issue should, in itself, send a powerful message to the Prime Minister that his Government must unequivocally scrap the rape clause.

"I myself have already raised this issue on the floor of the House numerous times and Ministers’ responses to simple questions have been robotic at best and heartless at worst.

"We need to seriously ask ourselves, do we really want to be a country that summons raped women to Government offices and tell them to ‘prove it’ in order to get tax credits?

"Is that really how twenty-first century Britain wants to be behave?

"I am sure that, deep down, David Cameron also doesn’t want us to continue down this precarious road to stigmatisation.

"The Prime Minister must therefore show leadership and today unequivocally drop plans for a rape clause on tax credits."