A group of Labour MPs has launched a bid to block Keir Starmer’s policy on the two-child benefit cap, amid a backlash in the party over the issue.
The MPs are urging Labour’s national policy forum, which will meet this weekend, to reject the leadership’s plan to keep the benefit cut – which critics say is a major cause of child poverty.
Representatives on the policy body will be asked to vote on an amendment to Labour’s official programme to “end the punitive features” of the welfare system – including the two-child limit.
Getting rid of the limit, which was introduced by the Conservatives, would lift 250,000 children out of poverty overnight and cost £1.3bn a year, the Child Poverty Action Group estimates.
But Labour frontbenchers on Tuesday defended Sir Keir’s decision to keep the cap, claiming it was too expensive to depart from Tory policy and that there was “no money left”.
MPs backing the challenge to the policy include John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, as well as other members of the left-wing Socialist Campaign Group of MPs like Kim Johnson and Andy McDonald.
But critics of the policy go beyond the left of the party. Unison, the country’s largest trade union, and the shop workers’ union Usdaw – which both endorsed Sir Keir for leader – are expected to use their votes in this weekend’s forum to support the amendment.
The policy forum meeting in Nottingham is an important staging post for drawing up Labour’s manifesto, though policies agreed there will not be automatically included in the final document and will face another review closer to the election.
Kim Johnson, the MP for Liverpool Riverside, said: “The two-child cap on benefits payments is as cruel as it is ineffective. With 1 in 7 children in poverty living in working households, work just does not pay enough to live on. Larger families are punished, leaving them struggling. Lifting the cap would immediately lift a quarter of a million children out of poverty – making it the single most effective intervention to tackle child poverty.
“The evidence is there for all to see. Punishing families for having more than two children doesn’t push parents back into work – it only drives more children into poverty.
“The 1997 Labour government was bold in its policies to tackle child poverty, from Sure Start to flexible childcare. Today such a programme is more important than ever, ending the two child cap is supported by Labour members and trade unions alike. I hope the Party takes it up at the National Policy Forum this weekend.”
Beyond the two-child benefits policy, left-wing campaign group Momentum is pushing for Labour to adopt a broader slate of radical policies, on issues like a £15 minimum wage, public ownership, and rent controls.
The organisation has built a website to help Labour members lobby their representatives on the national policy forum to back their agenda, asking them to stand up for “real Labour values”.
Labour MP Andy McDonald, who quit Sir Keir’s shadow cabinet over policy differences, said: “It’s clear Rishi Sunak has no plan and no desire to change this failing system, so it falls to the Labour Party to rebalance the scales of our economy and ensure dignity and security for working-class people.
“I’m glad to see the Labour Leadership recommit to the New Deal for Working People – now the party needs to follow with a £15 minimum wage, the scrapping of the two-child benefits cap and other punitive sanctions, and increased support for the sick and those on universal credit. It’s time to put Victorian Britain firmly in the past.”
Sir Keir said on Sunday Labour was “not changing” the two child policy, prompting criticism from figures including Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and public accounts committee chair Meg Hillier.
But the Labour leader has been so far publicly backed by members of his front bench, despite several, including Sir Keir himself, having previously railed against the Tory policy.
Shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell on Tuesday denied there was a split and defended Sir Keir’s stance, telling Sky News: “We’ve opposed this policy, this is not a good policy. We’ve opposed it for many years through parliament, but we’re now in a very different economic situation. As a famous phrase would go, there is no money left, the government has absolutely tanked the economy.”
