Two-child benefit cap is 'spiteful' - minister

No 10's preferred deputy leader candidate signals policy could be scrapped

- Eleni Courea Political correspondent

Ministers are a step closer to abandoning the two-child benefit cap after No 10's preferred candidate to be Labour's deputy leader said the policy was "spiteful" and had "punished and pushed children into hardship".

Bridget Phillipson said the controversial cap's abolition was "on the table" - the clearest sign yet that Downing Street is preparing to scrap it.

The education secretary added that if she won the deputy leadership contest she would have a mandate to make tackling child poverty the "unbreakable moral mission" of this government.

Keir Starmer has previously signalled his desire to scrap the limit, which prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children, when economic conditions allow. Child poverty campaigners expect the government to examine the policy as part of the budget on 26 November.

Phillipson said the issue was "profoundly personal" to her because she knew "the sting of growing up in poverty" in Tyne and Wear, where her mother's home had problems with damp and no heating upstairs.

One winter, a neighbour who saw her playing outside in a jumper pushed an envelope with money through the letterbox. It said: "For Bridget's coat." "Lifting more children out of poverty is why I came into politics," Phillipson said. "I'm thinking every day about how to turn the tide on child poverty. Everything is on the table, including removing the two-child limit.

"I want the mandate to go further. The mandate, as deputy leader, to make tackling child poverty the unbreakable moral mission of this Labour government."