Education secretary says Labour will ‘consider’ scrapping two-child benefit cap
The new education secretary has said the Labour government will “consider” scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
Bridget Phillipson insisted she “believes very, very strongly” in reducing child poverty, pointing to the newly established government taskforce on the issue.
She told Sky News: “I’m delighted to be leading with Liz Kendall, [the government’s] work and pensions secretary, a taskforce across government to look at how we can bear down on those numbers.”
Phillipson added that “too many people” are living under poverty in the UK, hailing Labour’s plan to take to introduce universal free breakfast clubs.
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But pressed on scrapping the two-child benefit cap, Phillipson said: “This was not a policy that a Labour government introduced.
“We are aware of the evidence around this, and as part of the review that we will conduct in the coming months we will consider that as part of a number of ways… in terms of how we can lift children out of poverty.”
The minister did not commit to scrapping the two-child benefit cap, but admitted it will need to be “considered”.
Told that scrapping the cap would be a quick way of getting children out of poverty, she said: “Unfortunately it’s also a very expensive measure, but we will need to consider it as one of a number of levers in terms of how we make sure we lift children out of poverty.”
Phillipson’s comments come amid a Labour rebellion on the issue as more than a dozen of the party’s own MPs call for the cap to be scrapped.
Labour MP Kim Johnson has tabled an amendment to the King’s Speech which calls on the government to abolish the cap.
It has been signed by 18 Labour MPs and 29 MPs in total. It may not be selected for a vote but it is placing pressure on Keir Starmer during the early days of his premiership.
Among those backing the amendment is former shadow chancellor John McDonnell.
Speaking this morning, Kim Johnson told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I don’t see this as a rebellion. I have said from the beginning about the amendment, it is very much about debate, not division. I do hear what ministers are saying about the financial situation we find ourselves in, the worst since the Second World War.
“But Gordon Brown and others have suggested that there are alternatives in terms of where we can find the funds to support the removal of the two-child cap which is estimated at something like £3.4billion.”
Johnson added: “There are alternatives. But I know as a party we have got a massive mountain to climb but doing nothing for me is not an option.
“47 per cent of children in my Liverpool Riverside constituency are living in poverty. That is one in two children. It is a national crisis that we need to do something about.”
Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, has also said his party will table an amendment to the King’s Speech to end the cap.
The House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle holds the power to select amendments.
Speaking last week, Flynn said the two-child cap is “pushing thousands of Scottish children into poverty” and ending it is “the bare minimum” required of the new government.
In a letter to Scottish Labour MPs, Flynn said it would be “simple” for the government to scrap the cap “immediately”, adding this was “a political choice and it requires politicians, across parties, to demand better”.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats said they would scrap the policy in their manifesto.
Even some Conservatives have disowned the policy, including the right-wing former home secretary MP Suella Braverman.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is another to have spoken out against the cap.
The policy came into effect in April 2017, having been announced by George Osborne during his time as chancellor in 2015. It prevents parents claiming universal credit for any third or subsequent child.
It is said that scrapping the cap would lift about 270,000 households with children out of poverty at an estimated cost of £1.4 billion in the first year.
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