MPs are set to vote on scrapping the two-child benefit cap on Tuesday.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle selected a King’s Speech amendment tabled by SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.It reads that “eradicating child poverty must be a primary priority for the newly-elected Government” and therefore “as a vital first step in tackling child poverty, to immediately abolish the two-child limit”.
Independent MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, Green Party and Plaid Cymru politicians signed in support of the amendment.
It piles pressure on Labour to scrap the rule which limits welfare payments and tax credits to the first two children in most families. The Government was facing four amendments to the King’s Speech on the issue, including one from rebel Labour MPs.
It comes after the Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the Government must do “the sums” before considering axing the two-child benefit cap.
Ms Kendall told Times Radio on Tuesday morning: “We were elected on the promise that we would only make spending commitments that we know we can keep and we are facing a dire inheritance from the Tories.
“I’m not into a wink and a nudge politics.
“I’m not going to look constituents in the face and tell them I’m going to do something without actually having done the sums figuring out how I’m going to pay for it, figuring out how we transform opportunity for those children, not just in terms of their household income, which is essential, but about having sustained improvements to helping people get work and get on in work, more childcare, early years support, sorting out the dire state of people’s housing.
“It’s got to be part of a much bigger approach.”
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has spoken out against keeping the cap in place.
Ex Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman has also called for her party to back scrapping the rule.
“It’s clear to me from my work with vulnerable families and parents that the cap isn’t working,” she said during a debate.
But new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers have so far refused to commit to lifting the cap and have said it will be looked at as part of a tackling child poverty taskforce.
Think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that removing it would eventually cost the Government about £3.4billion a year.
Ms Kendall added that Labour is “absolutely determined to make a huge difference” on childhood hardship but cannot tackle the “dire inheritance” from the Tories “overnight”.
“It is a political choice to prioritise driving down child poverty and driving up opportunity,” she told the BBC.
“Look, I don’t need anyone telling me about the impact that child poverty has.
“I’ve got a third of children in my city, in Leicester, growing up poor.
“But I’ve also seen people dying waiting for NHS treatment. And my council budget cut by a third, the appalling state of housing in this country, millions of people written off who need to work and who could work but have been denied support, and then blamed for the position they are in.
“We face a dire inheritance from this (Conservative) government. We can’t change it all overnight.”
