Two-child cap: Starmer says no ‘silver bullet’ despite ‘strong feeling’ in party

Keir Starmer has claimed there is no “silver bullet” to tackle child poverty as pressure continues to build on the new Labour government to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

At the launch of new public body Skills England today, the Prime Minister was asked by journalists about the debate in the party around the cap – which a string of backbench Labour MPs have openly opposed.

Amendments to the King’s Speech  have called for the controversial benefit cap to be abolished, including by Labour backbenchers.

He said: “I’m not surprised that there’s a real passion about this. In the Labour party, you’d expect there to be child poverty is something that we need to eradicate, and there’s a very strong feeling in the Labour party and the labour movement, about that.”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson suggested earlier today that the government would consider lifting the cap, although Chancellor Rachel Reeves yesterday declined to make an “unfunded” pledge to scrap it.

READ MORE: Charities at roundtable say axe two-child cap as child poverty taskforce launched

Government statistics estimate that around 1.6 million children are in households affected by the two-child benefit cap.

Starmer told reporters: “There is no silver bullet. If there was a silver bullet, it would had been shot a very long time ago.

“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 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.”

He added: “I’m not surprised we’re having a debate about it. It’s good that we’re having a debate about it. What matters is that we turn that into action and reduce child poverty, which is what I’m determined that we will do.”

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