Bridget Phillipson is pushing the prime minister and chancellor to scrap the two-child benefit cap entirely in next month’s budget, with the education secretary telling the Guardian the evidence is clear that it needs to be removed.
Phillipson, who is finalising a report to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves on child poverty, said abolishing the cap was the most cost effective way to make lives better for young disadvantaged people.
Her intervention comes after the Guardian revealed that Reeves is exploring a “tapered” system which would remove the cap in part but not wholly – for example, by moving the cap to three or four children instead.
Officials say, however, the chancellor will find it difficult to go against the findings of the child poverty taskforce, which Phillipson co-chairs – meaning Reeves is now under more pressure than ever to find the money to abolish the cap.
Phillipson told the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast: “I’ve been clear in public and in conversations with colleagues about what the evidence tells us and what needs to happen. Every year that passes, because of the two-child limit, more children move into poverty and the evidence is there for all to see.”
The education secretary is running to be deputy leader of her party after the resignation of Angela Rayner last month. She told the Guardian she was seeking the role in part to be given a mandate from Labour members to push the prime minister to do more on child poverty.
“I have pushed to take action ahead of the budget – and that’s why we’re expanding free school meals, which will lift 100,000 children out of poverty – but there is more to do. That is why I’m seeking a mandate from members to do more.”
Asked if she was seeking a mandate specifically to push for the removal of the cap, and not only for it to be tapered, she agreed. “Members should know that if I’m at that cabinet table, I know what needs to happen and I know what we need to do,” she added.
The two-child benefit cap was introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, and is now estimated to affect more than 10% of children in the UK. The Child Poverty Action Group says scrapping it would lift 350,000 children out of poverty, but doing so would eventually cost an estimated £3.6bn a year – money the chancellor will struggle to find given the multibillion-pound shortfall she faces.
Phillipson said: “I’ve campaigned on this for a very, very long time. It’s something that brought me into Labour politics and it’s what drives me today. But I’ve never at any point suggested that the main consideration here is about the cost of the policy. I have been clear that this policy comes with a significant price tag, but I’ve never said that, for example, there’s no money left to pay for this.”
The education secretary is engaged in a fierce battle with her former cabinet colleague Lucy Powell for the deputy leadership of the party. Polls suggest Powell is heading for victory, but Phillipson has the backing of more unions.
Powell has pitched herself as the candidate who will be best able to challenge Starmer openly, given he recently demoted her from the cabinet.
But Phillipson told the Guardian she thought some of those supporting her rival – including the leftwing campaign group Momentum – were doing it deliberately to damage the Labour party.
“I think we will be more effective in doing what Labour members want to see if we can have those frank conversations within closed rooms – where members’ voices are heard, but not where we’re throwing stones from the outside,” she said.
“And I also would add that when you look at some of those like Momentum, who are endorsing my opponent, they are doing so because they want to destabilise the Labour party.”
After a summer in which Labour was accused of letting Nigel Farage dominate the headlines with anti-migration messages, Phillipson said it was important to tackle him head on, accusing him of taking his Reform UK party into a “very extreme space”.
But she added that the best way to do so was to improve public services rather than insult Farage personally. “The key test, when it comes to tackling Reform, will be about how we show and not tell the difference that this Labour government is making,” she said.
