Starmer hints at doing away with two-child benefit cap

Sir Keir Starmer has left the door open to scrapping the twochild benefit cap amid mounting pressure from backbench Labour MPs and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL, MILLIE COOKE

MPs from across Labour have repeatedly urged the prime minister to scrap or ease the limit – first imposed by austerity architect George Osborne in 2015 – amid growing concern over the direction of the party.

Days after Mr Farage said a Reform government would get rid of it entirely, Sir Keir said he is looking at “all options” to lift children out of poverty.

His response came just days after education secretary Bridget Phillipson said getting rid of the two-child limit was “on the table” as part of Labour’s delayed child poverty strategy, now expected to be published in the autumn.

“It’s certainly something that we’re considering,” she said. “We’ve always been clear that social security measures are an important part of what the child poverty task force is looking at.”