Labour’s Shadow Welfare Secretary calls for party to review position on benefits cap

Owen Smith, Shadow Welfare Secretary, has called for a debate within the Labour party over benefits cap.

The Government is planning to reduce the benefits back from £26,000 to £23,000 – a plan that Labour oppose. In an interview on Newsnight, Smith said that Labour’s current policy is to oppose the cuts to the individual benefits cap.

But he noted that Labour need to review their position “right across the whole debate”.

He went on to say that the party is “”in favour of an overall reduction in the amount of money we spend on benefits in this country and in favour of limits on what individual families can draw down”. However he said that there needs to be a review of the party’s position to the cap in general.

This comes after yesterday at the TUC Congress Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s new leader, said the party were tabling amendments to the Welfare Bill that would remove the idea of the benefit cap.

“The reduction in the benefit cap has the effect of socially cleansing many parts of our cities. Owen Smith and I had discussions last night about amendments that we are going to put down to the Welfare Reform Bill. As far as I am concerned, the amendments we are putting forward are to remove the whole idea of the benefit cap altogether”, he said in his first speech since being elected as Labour leader.

When he was asked about Corbyn’s statement on getting rid of the cap in its entirety, Smith said: “No, our policy is to review that aspect of it – we are very clear. Because I don’t think the country would support us saying we were in favour of unfettered spending.”

Kate Green, Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, also  said that the party’s current stance was that they “accept the principle of the cap but it is not currently before Parliament to have a vote to remove it altogether”.