Sir Keir Starmer has strongly hinted the two-child benefit cap will be scrapped at the budget – after the chancellor did the same.
Asked if he would be getting rid of the cap, the prime minister told ITV: “We won’t have to wait much longer, but I wouldn’t be telling you that we’re going to drive down child poverty if I wasn’t clear that we will be taking a number of measures in order to do so.”
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On Monday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves also signalled she will lift the cap, which currently means families cannot claim child benefits for more than their first two children.
“I don’t think that it’s right that a child is penalised because they are in a bigger family, through no fault of their own,” she told the BBC.
“So we will take action on child poverty.”
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Ms Reeves also mentioned she had spoken to former Labour PM and chancellor Gordon Brown on Sunday and Monday.
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He told Sky News on Monday morning he is “confident” the two-child benefit cap will change at the budget.
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Mr Brown, who has long campaigned to get it lifted, said: “I am confident that the two-child rule will be addressed.
“We’re waiting for Rachel Reeves’s budget, which I think will mention this.
“Keir Starmer, I know is personally concerned and interested in this.
“So I’m hopeful that in the next few weeks we’ll see the kind of action that we’ve been talking about.”
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The current Labour government has had a difficult relationship with the policy, with the PM suspending seven of his MPs two weeks after winning the election for voting against the government to lift the cap.
Lifting it will cost £2.8bn, something ministers have had to grapple with as they try to plug a growing economic black hole.
Ms Reeves also mentioned Mr Brown is one of her political heroes because he did so much to lift children out of poverty, and said it was the reason she went into politics.
