Keir Starmer today teed up the full scrapping of the two-child benefit cap reassuring Labour MPs ‘you won’t have to wait much longer’.
The PM dropped another barely-concealed hint that the curbs on handouts will be abandoned as he voiced determination to ‘drive child poverty down’.
The comments, as Sir Keir appeared on ITV’s Lorraine programme, came after Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave a similar indication in an interview yesterday.
Challenged on whether the move – which would cost around £3billion a year – would be in the Budget on November 26, the Prime Minister said: ‘I can tell you in no uncertain terms I’m determined to drive child poverty down.
‘It is what the last Labour government did, and it’s one of the things we were proudest of.
‘I am personally determined that is what we are going to do.
‘You won’t have to wait much longer to see what the measures are.
‘Some of them are already in place: the free school meals, the breakfast clubs, free childcare are all part of it.
‘But look, we need to do more than that and I can look you in the eye and tell you I am personally committed to driving down child poverty.’
Pressed in the interview – recorded yesterday – whether that would involve axing the two-child benefit cap, the PM said: ‘I wouldn’t be telling you that we’re going to drive down child poverty if I wasn’t clear that we will be taking a number of measures in order to do so.’
The Government has been under massive pressure from Left-wingers and anti-poverty campaigners over the policy, which restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.
Ms Reeves said yesterday that she did not think children should be ‘penalised’ for being part of large families.
The Treasury was previously thought to be looking at different options including whether additional benefits might be limited to three or four children, or whether there could be a taper rate meaning parents would receive the most benefits for their first child and less for subsequent children.
The Chancellor told BBC Radio 5 Live it was important not to let the ‘costs to our economy in allowing child poverty to go unchecked’.
Campaigners from the Child Poverty Action Group argue that 109 children across the UK are pulled into poverty by the policy every day.
