MSPs have condemned changes to child tax credits and a controversial provision known as the "rape clause" in a Holyrood debate yesterday.

To cut the welfare bill, the UK Government has capped child tax credit to two children per family, except in special circumstances, such as a subsequent child being born from rape.

To qualify for more money, mothers must name such children and discuss their case with health care professionals or others.

In a heated debate, MSPs heaped scorn on Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson and her party for failing to condemn the policy.

There were shouts of “shame” as Ms Davidson and colleagues refused to take interventions and said the measure had to be seen in the “context” of managing the nation’s finances.

Over an uncomfortable two hours for the Scottish Tories, many of the party’s MSPs kept their heads lowered and read their phones instead of making eye contact with critics.

Cumnock MSP Jeane Freeman has since backed a petition and has called upon constituents to help scrap the Westminster government's policy.

Ms Freeman said: "Victims of domestic abuse should be protected by the UK Government, not punished financially for their inability to engage with an abusive ex-partner.

"The UK Government advises victims of domestic abuse that they should utilise their less safe 'Direct-Pay' scheme, which has no powers of enforcement and allows continued communication through bank transfers.

"The Tories have shown a complete lack of compassion by introducing this charge and even worse, they actually risk putting the lives of domestic abuse victim-survivors and their children in real danger.

"The UK Government must look again at this unfair tax and listen to calls from charities, the public and MPs to scrap it - ultimately, it will be the children that child maintenance payments are intended to support who will lose out."

Opening the debate yesterday, First Ministers Nicola Sturgeon asked parliament to state it was “fundamentally opposed” to the two-child cap and the rape clause, and that both should be scrapped.

She said: “No woman anywhere should have to prove that she has been raped in order to get tax credits for her child. I actually can’t believe that in 2017 I am having to stand up in the Scottish Parliament and make that argument.”

Reading an email from a victim, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale urged Tory MSPs to heed the “heartbreaking” testimony and disown the UK Government policy.

Holyrood listened in silence as Ms Dugdale said the woman never wanted her child to know the truth and would not risk telling others under the rape clause in case they found out.

The woman,who has three other children, said she had previously felt suicide could be “the only way out” after being attacked by a close friend four years ago.

She said the need “to protect my children from the truth came above all other considerations” to avoid “the permanent and damaging stigma attached to rape”.

Referring to the benefits form involved in the rape clause, the woman wrote: “There is no way I could complete that awful form of shame, no matter what the consequences.

“Looking back, that really could have been the thing that tipped me completely over the edge; the difference between surviving to tell the tale and not.”

Reading the victim’s account from her email, Ms Dugdale told MSPs: “My child doesn’t know where they came from and if I have anything to do with it they never will. Nobody knows; aside from me, my husband and the mental health nurse who helped me through this living hell.