Angela Rayner wanted to force middle-class families to lose child benefit in a bid to avoid welfare cuts for the disabled and a squeeze on public spending, a leaked memo has revealed.
The deputy prime minister’s proposal would have forced families where the top earn has a salary of £50,000 or more to pay back any child benefit they receive through their tax returns.
The scheme was originally introduced as an austerity measure by George Osborne in 2010, but the band was raised to a salary of £60,000 or more by former Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt just before the last general election.
Sir Jeremy also created a sliding scale so the benefit would only be lost completely if a single household earner had a wage of £80,000 or more.
Ms Rayner wanted to reverse that move in a bid to stave off £5bn cuts to welfare for people with disabilities and other public spending cuts.
The proposal appeared in the same memo to Chancellor Rachel Reeves where she recommended eight new wealth taxes and cutting benefits for migrants.
The leak of the memo to the Daily Telegraph appears to be part of a briefing campaign against the deputy prime minister from rivals within the government.
It comes amid concerns that support for Sir Keir Starmer is ebbing among Labour MPs and activists over a number of measures, including welfare cuts and his speech on immigration, which borrowed language from former rightwing Tory MP Enoch Powell’s infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech.
Ms Rayner was notably quiet as other cabinet ministers attempted to defend the prime minister from criticism over his speech and new policies to restrict migration further.
In the memo, Ms Rayner admitted that changing the child benefit rules would be “contentious”.
Sir Jeremy has warned against reversing his change from last year.
He 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.”
Parents can claim £1,355 a year in child benefit for a first child and £897 a year for any additional child.
