Sir Keir Starmer has avoided committing to considering scrapping the two-child benefit cap as he said there is “no silver bullet” to solving child poverty.
A growing number of Labour MPs have been putting pressure on the prime minister to remove the cap introduced by the Conservative government which means families can only claim child tax credits or Universal Credit for their first two children.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told Sky News on Monday the government was “considering” removing the cap, although she said it was a “very expensive measure”.
However, asked if his government would consider removing the cap, Sir Keir would not say.
“In relation to poverty, what the education secretary said this morning, I agree with what she said,” he said at a news conference at Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire.
“She’s passionate about tackling poverty. And child poverty in particular.”
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Pushed on whether he would look at removing the cap, he said the passion within the Labour Party to eradicate child poverty is why he has set up a taskforce, headed up by Ms Phillipson, to tackle the issue.
There was no mention of benefits when the taskforce was announced last week.
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“There is no silver bullet. It was a silver bullet. It had been shot a very long time ago,” the PM said.
“It’s a complicated set of factors that I know, and I can see every day in my own constituency, to do with pay, to do with benefits, to do with work, to do with housing, to do with education, to do with health.
“And that is why you need a strategy to deal with it, which is why we set up a very strongly chaired body to drive forward that work.”
Treasury minister James Murray defended keeping the cap as he told Sky News over the weekend unfunded spending commitments crash the economy.
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However, Sir Keir has come under fire from others in his party, including John McDonnell, senior backbencher and shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr McDonnell told Sky News the taskforce is “a step forward but not far enough” and said it was “more than likely” he would back an SNP motion calling to scrap the limit.
Skills England launch
Sir Keir was at Farnborough Airshow to launch Skills England, an organisation to bring central and local government, businesses, trade unions and training providers together to better understand the nation’s “skills gap”.
It will work with the Migration Advisory Committee to reduce long-term reliance on workers from overseas by addressing areas where home-grown skills can be improved.
He said the plan will “make sure that we’re training young people not just for any business, but for the businesses that exist in their communities, the skills that you and they need to take each other forward.”
The PM said migration is important to the UK but he no longer wants the “overreliance” on an increasing number of immigrant workers because young people in the UK “have been let down, not given access to the right opportunities or training in their community”.
According to the Department for Education, skills shortages doubled between 2017 and 2022, and now account for 36% of job vacancies.
