THERESA May infuriated campaigners after she appeared to insinuate that the cap on child family tax credit, and the rape clause exemption would only affect the unemployed, and that it was the “fair” thing to do.

May was pushed on the cap and clause during Prime Minister’s Question yesterday by the SNP’s Chris Stephens.

The Glasgow South West MP raised the issue of third parties that the Government say will help women who have conceived a child as a result of rape fill in the eight-page form to claim the exemption.

No women’s organisation in Scotland has agreed to be that third party, with Rape Crisis Scotland, Engender, Zero Tolerance and Scottish Women’s Aid all saying they will not “collude” with the policy.

Stephens warned the Prime Minister that there was nobody north of the Border willing to help women fill in the Tory leader’s “eight-page ‘Why my child is a product of rape’ form”.

“Is the Prime Minister seriously going into this UK-wide election with this unworkable and immoral policy?“ he asked.

The Prime Minister said that she was.

This was “an incredibly sensitive issue,” May said. She added that the Government had consulted “very carefully on it, and we have put in place a series of sensitive measures for when such cases arise”. She added: “I think it is important, however, that we look at what lies behind this, because underpinning this policy is a principle of fairness, and we know that what the SNP want to do is actually to scrap the policy in its entirety.

“We believe that people who are in work have to make the same decisions as those people who are out of work, so that people who are on benefits should have to decide whether they can afford more children, just as people in work have to make such a decision.”

Naomi McAuliffe, right, from Amnesty International tweeted: “Is there some parallel universe where only childless people lose their jobs? Or split with their partner? Or get ill?” MP Corri Wilson tweeted: “Theresa May says #RapeClause is ‘underpinned by fairness’ — showing both her cruelty & her inability to understand what ‘fair’ means #PMQs.”

A super motion from the SNP, Labour, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats condemning the “unacceptable” and “morally repugnant” policy was overwhelmingly backed by Members of the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, with only the Tories coming to the cap and the rape clause’s defence.

In a statement after that debate, Scottish Women’s Aid said that any policy that “actively and knowingly pushes women and children into poverty has no place in our society, and it is not something that we can support.

“We are encouraged by the overwhelming support we’ve received in standing against and refusing to collude with the rape clause. Our opposition and resistance to this policy is not going anywhere, nor – we suspect – is that of the Scottish public, poverty organisations, children’s organisations and our sister organisations working to end violence against women.”