The Labour Party is gearing up for its first King’s Speech on Wednesday 17 July. Ahead of this, politicians from across the political spectrum have called on the party to finally ditch the callous two-child limit on benefits. But on Tuesday 16 July Angela Rayner was still holding firm.
Of course, even since the election, “Sir Kid Starver” and his cabinet of sycophants have been bandying about the same old tired “fiscal responsibility” rhetoric to its corporate media lapdogs to evade doing this.
So now, the SNP, Greens, Lib Dems, independents – and notably, even some Labour MPs are taking the party leadership to task on this.
Two-child limit: Starmer’s champion of working class cosplaying falls flat
Since Starmer’s Labour formed the UK’s new government, pressure has increasingly mounted over one of the party’s most egregiously unconscionable refusals to step up. Specifically, throughout the election campaign, and over the last year, Starmer’s big business and billionaire-backed Labour has ignored calls to end a Tory policy needlessly increasing child poverty.
The unaffectionately renamed “Sir Kid Starver” has maintained his red Tory stance NOT to scrap the cruel two-child limit on benefits. The Conservatives introduced the policy in 2017. Essentially, it meant that families on benefits like Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit would only factor a maximum of two children in its calculations. As the Canary previously reported:
The policy has been controversial. A court ruled in June 2017 that the policy was “discriminatory” against single mothers with children under two. Then, in April 2018, another court said the cap was unlawful. This was in relation to young carers. The so-called ‘rape clause‘, where women have to prove they’ve been raped to get an exception to the two-child limit, also sparked outrage.
Moreover, the eugenicist policy has plunged over million children into poverty. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has estimated that it impacted over 1.6 million children in 2023. In other words, the limit hurt 1 in 9 children across the UK last year.
Despite repeated challenges on its position throughout the lead up to the election, Labour has insisted that its new government simply can’t afford to drop the policy. New Northampton North MP Lucy Rigby was one of the latest Starmerite lackeys wheeled out to spout this to the corporate media:
Labour MP Lucy Rigby is asked about not scrapping the Tories 2child benefit cap & she says “this changed Lab party has to put fiscal responsibility first & I’m comfortable with that”.
Rigby then says one of the driving reasons she entered politics was to take kids out of poverty pic.twitter.com/DEzXC6uarr
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) July 12, 2024
Just this morning – 16 July – one day before the King’s Speech sets out Labour’s legislative agenda, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner took to BBC Breakfast to reject these calls once again:
‘I accept people are frustrated’
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told #BBCBreakfast the Government will not make changes in the King’s Speech to the two child benefit cap https://t.co/nFxLF1XmHP pic.twitter.com/J3mkpa2ZkS
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) July 16, 2024
Of course, the unaffordability rhetoric is absolute nonsense. Instead of an immutable fact, it is in reality, a political choice. As some on X have expressed, it’s Tory “heating or eating” 2.0 – Labour choosing between militaristic chest-beating or children eating:
1.6ml children are impacted by the Tories two child benefit cap
It would cost £2.5bl to scrap the cap
Starmer says we can’t afford to scrap it
But he has £3bn every year for Ukraine
There is always money for war. But never money for ordinary people.pic.twitter.com/E2RL0wGUkn
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) July 12, 2024
Unsurprisingly, plenty of the Labour leadership’s political opponents have also called it out on this.
MPs call the Labour government out
First, on 11 July, the BBC reported how a number of Labour MPs have voiced opposition to the limit.
Most notably, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside Kim Johnson has articulated plans to lay:
an amendment to the King’s Speech calling for the cap to scrapped
On the same day, iNews reported that independent MPs were:
already in talks over how best to pressure the new government into making an announcement on the policy.
Meanwhile, other Labour MPs, particularly those from the Labour left’s Socialist Campaign Group (SCG), have spoken out about the policy:
120 child welfare groups, faith bodies & trade unions are calling for the 2 child benefit cap to be scrapped. This would lift over 300,000 children out of poverty. In Parliament next week I urge the government to set out a swift timetable for this & give hope to many families. pic.twitter.com/Z2xCKCCTqm
— John McDonnell (@johnmcdonnellMP) July 13, 2024
📰Read: I am asking the new Labour Government:
Immediately lift hundreds of thousands of children across the country out of poverty now by scrapping the two-child limit on universal credit.https://t.co/TUwWn9y3Av
— Rebecca Long-Bailey (@RLong_Bailey) July 14, 2024
As I said to The Guardian, scrapping the two-child benefit cap would not only lift 100,000s of children out of poverty.
It’d also be a powerful statement of how our new Government will deliver the positive change people so desperately need after 14 years of cruel Tory policies. https://t.co/ysI1VvJppm
— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) July 12, 2024
Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana eviscerated the Labour leadership’s bullshit economic justifications in one fell swoop:
A 1% wealth tax on assets over £10 million would raise £12 billion.
Abolishing the two-child benefit limit – and thereby lifting 300,000 children out of poverty – would cost £3.4 billion.
That should be a priority for our new government: Tackling poverty and taxing the richest.
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) July 9, 2024
That is, while the party has been cosying up in bed with billionaire capitalists, it’s also holding fast to another ridiculous refusal. It has so far obstinately opposed calls for the party to embrace a wealth tax. Not to mention of course that in Starmer’s U-turn frenzy, he previously reneged on plans to increase income tax for the top 5% of earners.
Naturally, Labour MPs weren’t the only ones pointing out the big blatant billionaire-shaped hypocrisy of the government’s feeble line. Deputy leader of the Green Party Zack Polanski showed it up too:
Labour – “It breaks our heart we can’t remove the two child benefit cap. We can’t afford it.”
Also Labour “I don’t have any spending plans that require a wealth tax. So I don’t need a wealth tax.”
Labour are protecting entirely the wealth of multimillionaires & billionaires. https://t.co/BvdRARlFRY
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) July 13, 2024
Alongside Labour MP Johnson’s plans to push her party to drop the policy, the SNP is also challenging the new government. As the Independent reported, SNP leader Stephen Flynn has said he will also table an amendment to the King’s Speech. Additionally, he has written to the leader of Scottish Labour Anas Sarwar to urge his party’s MPs to back the amendment.
Petulant political posturing won’t tackle poverty
When all is said and done, Starmer’s petulant political posturing on child poverty is disgraceful. However, scrapping the limit alone won’t go nearly far enough to tackle child poverty.
By CPAG’s own figures, dropping the policy would:
lift 300,000 children out of poverty and mean 700,000 children are in less deep poverty
In other words, that’s 700,000 children STILL in poverty. As the Canary highlighted before the election, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation calculated that:
Around six million people (or 9% of the population) in the UK were in very deep poverty in 2022/23. This includes 1.6 million children, 3.9 million working-age adults, and 600,000 pensioners. Thirty years ago, around one in three people in poverty were in very deep poverty, by 2022/23 that stood at over four in 10.
What’s more, even if Labour abolishes the limit, benefits are still contemptibly low. Crucially, successive governments have subjected benefits claimants to a suite of devastating reforms. People on old-style benefits the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have shunted onto Universal Credit are thousands of pounds worse off than before.
Of course, Tories’ class war has also pushed people into greater poverty through real-terms cuts to their benefits as well. As the cost of living spiralled, the previous government refused to raise benefits in line with inflation. In short, basic daily necessities soared in price, but benefits did not keep pace to match.
In October 2023, the New Economics Foundation estimated that even if benefits increased with inflation, people would still be worse off. Notably, it found that:
Support for an out-of-work single person over 25 on universal credit would reduce by £670 a year in April 2024 compared with April 2023 even if benefits are uprated in line with inflation. For a lone parent with one child the cut amounts to £350, while a couple over 25 with 2 children will see their benefit income increase by just £35 a year.
This was partly due to the Tories ending the cost of living payments.
So at the end of the day, ending the cruel two-child benefit limit must be only the start. As long as Labour stays wedded to demonising benefits claimants and backing big business over workers, it’s platitudes to end child poverty will continue to ring hollow.
Feature image via the Canary/Real Stories – YouTube
