Will the child benefit row rain on Starmer’s by-election parade?

As the Tories chalk up a rare win with the passing of the Illegal Migration Bill in the Lords, Keir Starmer is facing a revolt in his own party over his insistence that a Labour government would keep the two-child benefit limit.

As James Heale reports, MPs from across the party gathered at Monday’s parliamentary Labour party meeting to express concerns over Starmer’s position on a policy that both he and the majority of his shadow cabinet have heavily criticised in the past. MPs called for the Labour leader to think again but received little in the way of assurances from his deputy Angela Rayner. The question is whether the issue is now raised at this morning’s shadow cabinet meeting.

One Labour school of thought is that this is a tactical move ahead of the by-elections for Starmer to back a policy – keeping the benefit cap – that polls well.