Labour row brews over two-child benefit cap

Another day, another Keir Starmer U-turn. The Labour leader is facing a backlash from his own side after Starmer used an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg’s to say that a Labour government would keep the two-child benefits cap.

When asked whether he would scrap the cap – which has been blamed by Labour politicians for pushing families into poverty – Starmer said he was ‘not changing that policy’. That is a decision that will upset many in the shadow cabinet, let alone the wider parliamentary party.

The current work and pensions secretary John Ashworth has previously described the cap as heinous: ‘the idea that this policy helps move people into work is completely offensive nonsense’. Ashworth’s predecessor in the role, Jonathan Reynolds, also took a dismal view of it. Speaking at the 2021 Labour party conference, when Starmer was already leader, Reynolds said the party planned to scrap it:

Conference, we will not let them forget.