Pressure mounts on Starmer to scrap two-child benefit cap

The Scottish National Party (SNP) will table an amendment to end the two-child benefit cap if Labour doesn’t include the measure in this week’s programme for government.

It comes amid increasing pressure for new PM Keir Starmer to scrap the policy. Brought in by the Conservatives in 2017, the cap means parents can only claim child tax credit or universal credit for up to two children.

Recent figures have shown that more than one and a half million children across the UK are affected by the two-child limit on benefits.

But Starmer says scrapping the cap is not currently affordable, despite having previously called for an end to the cap under the Tories.

In a letter to Labour MPs in Scotland, Stephen Flynn MP, the Westminster leader for the SNP, said scrapping the two-child benefit cap was “the bare minimum” the Labour party must do to start tackling child poverty. He urged Scottish MPs to support the amendment, as the controversial policy is pushing thousands of Scottish children into severe financial hardship.

The SNP also called for the Labour government to match the SNP government’s Scottish child payment across the UK by raising the child allowance element of universal credit by £26.70 per week per child.

Tension in the party

Starmer is also facing pressure from within his own party.

Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said she wants the government to axe the cap in the upcoming King’s Speech this Wednesday. Writing on Labour List, she said that child poverty is the “most urgent issue of our day”.

“In the sixth richest economy in the world, no child should be living below the breadline,” Johnson added.

This week, the Labour government will set out the laws it wants to bring in over the next year. Many MPs are hoping Starmer will relent and scrap the cap.

“Immense suffering”

Ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnel said he may try to change the budget to scrap the benefits restriction if the government doesn’t do so. He told Times Radio:

“Most of us think this needs to be done sooner rather than later because of the immense suffering our children are going through.”

Figures from the Child Poverty Action Group show that 4.2 million children in the UK were living below the poverty line between April 2021 and April 2022.

We called for an end to the cap in our election manifesto – with the data from the Child Poverty Action Group showing abolishing the policy would lift a quarter of a million kids out of poverty and improve life for another 850,000.