Suella Braverman has called for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped, saying the policy is “aggravating child poverty”.
The former home secretary praised the work of the late veteran Labour MP Frank Field towards eliminating poverty.
And she called for the Conservatives to “do more to support families and children on lower incomes”.
The call puts Ms Braverman, one of the leading figures on the Tory right, in a more progressive position than Labour on the issue. Sir Keir Starmer has come under significant pressure to promise an end to the policy, which prevents parents from claiming benefits for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017.
He vowed to scrap the two-child benefit cap while running to become leader, but has since said he will not change the policy if Labour wins power.
Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth has called the policy “heinous” and said it is “keeping children in poverty”.
Left-wing Labour MPs have vowed to keep pushing Sir Keir for a rethink on the policy.
And now Ms Braverman has waded into the row, writing in The Telegraph: “Let’s abolish the two-child limit, eradicate child poverty for good and make Frank Field proud.”
The policy was introduced in 2017 under the direction of former chancellor George Osborne, who posited that removing benefits eligibility for parents with a third child would “incentivise” parents to move into work and take up more hours.
But Ms Braverman said it has had the “unintended consequence” of driving almost half of children in families with three or more children into poverty.
She said many families do not know about the limit before having their third or fourth children, while half of those hit are single-parent families who are disproportionately affected.
She said: “As a result the policy has pushed more children into relative poverty and forced more families to use food banks.
“From what I see, this cap is creating the very culture of dependency that we are trying to vanquish.”
Abolishing the cap is thought to come with a price tag of around £2.5bn per year, which Ms Braverman said could be funded by getting more people claiming out-of-work benefits back into employment.
She added: “Do we support families or do we penalise them? That’s the real question of a compassionate welfare system.”
Sir Keir faced a major backlash last summer when he confirmed Labour was not planning to replace the policy.
Some in his party thought he had made a mistake when he told an interviewer he was “not changing” the policy.
Labour has blamed the Conservatives for losing control of the public finances, saying there are things the party would like to do but can now no longer afford as a result.
