Labour could U-turn on the benefit cap

The most striking aspect of Labour’s response to the Queen’s Speech yesterday was that it is ‘sympathetic’ to the Tory plan to lower the £26,000 benefit cap for workless households to £23,000.

This is a policy position that Harriet Harman developed after some discussion with the rest of the party as she prepared to respond to the Speech. The party is well aware that it struggled to respond well to the introduction of that cap in 2010, and that given it ended up being one of the most popular policies pollsters have ever touched, it can’t make the same mistake again.

But what’s interesting is that not all leadership candidates agree with this. I have heard from one campaign that ‘nothing Harriet does now is set (or written) in stone’ – a dig at the famous Ed Stone perhaps, but also a hint that Labour could end up U-turning on being ‘sympathetic’ to the benefit cap.