SIR Keir Starmer reportedly wants to scrap the two-child benefit cap in Labour’s latest welfare U-turn.
It comes after deputy leader Angela Rayner demanded half a million parents across the UK be stripped of child support, amid a brutal wave of proposed cuts,
The party’s civil war deepened last night after emerged Rayner from households where the highest earner makes between £50,000 and £80,000.
This would reverse worth up to£1,300 a year.
Starmer is said to have made it clear privately he is determined to axe the cap limit in a bid to drive down child poverty as his MPs threaten to rebel over the government’s welfare reforms.
One minister told The Observer: “Keir wants to end the two-child cap – he thinks it’s the right thing to do.
“It’s the best and most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. The alternatives cost more and are less effective.”;;
It could cost £3.5billion and would be the second major welfare U-turn after the last week.
The PM cracked under pressure after a voter backlash, but still refused to say how many OAPs would be spared or whether help will come in time for this.
As well as Raynor, health secretary Wes Streeting, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, and education secretary Bridget Phillipson have all voiced support to scrap what is the government’s flagship policy in its child poverty strategy.
It comes amid fears Labour could end up overseeing the highest levels of child poverty since records began.
The strategy has reportedly been delayed from the spring to the autumn to allow for the benefit changes.
While nothing is confirmed, sources say a commitment to end the two-child cap is included in plans in an effort to demonstrate welfare reform is a “moral mission”;; and not an austerity drive.
A senior figure told The Observer is “becoming more assertive”;; with the Treasury, and is “more determined to drive through the things he wants”;; – with the Winter Fuel Allowance a prime example.
The move would wipe out one of the most popular measures from Jeremy Hunt’s 2024 Budget, which raised the threshold at which families start losing.
Previously, households began to see their benefit cut if one parent earned over£50,000, with the payments completely withdrawn at£60,000.
Mr Hunt— allowing nearlyhalf a million familiesto keep more of their entitlement.
But Rayner’s proposal, revealed in a document dated March, would roll that back – hittingteachers, junior doctors,officersand others who had just been promised relief from risingbills.
The system has long sparked fury among parents, because eligibility isbased on individual salary, not joint household income.
That means a single earner on £60,000 with a stay-at-home partner loses the benefit — while a couple each earning £49,000 still qualify in full.
Mr Hunt had also launched ainto fixing this anomaly by assessing total household earnings instead — but Labour has sincequietly droppedthat plan.
The ex-Tory Chancellor said: “This may look like a relatively minor budget measure but was one of the most popular things we did because it helped striving middle-class families struggling with childcare costs.
“Abandoning them would finally confirm that far from being a New Labour government, this is a traditional anti-aspiration Old Labour government.”;;
