Labour delegates will not debate two-child benefit cap after ballot

Delegates at Labour Party conference will not debate scrapping the two-child benefit cap following a selection process today.

Fourteen topics among the contemporary motions put forward to conference have been selected by PLPs and affiliates to be discussed over the course of the 2025 Labour party conference in Liverpool.

Seven topics came under the CLP selection category, while seven were selected by affiliates in the priorities ballot.

While skills, high streets and public spending were among those selected, topics that included debates on scrapping the controversial cap were not among those picked.

However, a motion proposed by Unite on introducing a wealth tax and freezing the energy price cap was included among a topic picked by affiliates for debate.

Another topic put forward by the CWU is set to thrust the international debate around AI into conference, which states that “workers’ rights must be at the heart of policy-making around AI and the deployment of these technologies, across all sectors and all platforms”.

Read the latest news, analysis and commentary on the 2025 Labour party conference in Liverpool here on LabourList.

Another put forward by Aylesbury will hone in on NHS Dentistry, describing its access as a “fundamental right, not a privilege”.

The results of the ballots were announced as today’s main conference hall session was brought to a close, after a day full of debate and speakers including Housing Secretary Steve Reed, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan.

Luke Hurst, national co-ordinator of Mainstream, said he was “disappointed” that a motion supported by the group on ending the benefit limit would not be debated.

“We know, however, that ending the limit is supported by 84% of Labour members, by every single one of Labour’s affiliated unions, and by an increasingly large section of the PLP. This outcome shows one thing: the party machine is wildly out of step with the mainstream of the Labour Party.

“With each day that passes, the continuation of the two-child limit means children going hungry. Our determination to return social justice to the heart of Labour’s programme and to tackle the scourge of child poverty is unchanged.”

The full list of topics selected for debate is as follows:

CLP

• Animal welfare
• Cleaning up our communities
• High streets
• NHS dentistry
• Skills
• Violence against women and girls
• Water

Affiliates

• AI and our rights
• Guaranteed hours
• Industrial energy prices
• Public sector workers
• Public spending
• Staffing in adult social care
• Subsidiary companies and insourcing

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Labour party conference 2025: Read more from LabourList: 

What you need to know: 

• SPEECHES: Where is conference and when are Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner speaking?
• VOTES: Revealed: The party rule changes Labour conference could vote on

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