Lucy Powell says the Government must be ‘clearer’ about wanting to axe the two-child limit in its child poverty strategy, as pressure mounts on Keir Starmer to axe the Tory policy
Labour deputy leadership hopeful Lucy Powell has piled pressure on the Government to scrap the two-child limit.
She said the Government must be “clearer” about wanting to axe the two-child limit in its upcoming child poverty strategy. MPs have been pressing Keir Starmer to axe the Tory policy, which has been blamed for driving families into hardship.
The Manchester Central MP also warned that Labour’s “mistakes” on winter fuel and disability benefit cuts have given the impression that it is “not on the side of ordinary people”. Ms Powell, who was sacked by Keir Starmer in the recent reshuffle, is battling it out with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson for the deputy job.
Ms Phillipson, who is part of the team drawing up the child poverty strategy, is likely to come under significant pressure from MPs and party members over the cap, which restricts claims for Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit to the first two children.
Speaking to the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, she said: “I think we need to be clearer, because this is absolutely to the core of what we’re about, is that this Labour Government, like any Labour government, wants to reduce child poverty.
“And it’s very, very clear from all the evidence, the two-child benefit cap would be the single biggest policy we could do to address child poverty. So I think being in favour of the principle and that being an objective is really important. The question is the how and the when.”
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The ex-Commons leader said the Government had “many achievements” in its first year, but said people had “lost sense” of Labour’s values and “on whose side we are governing”. She said: “Some of the mistakes that we’ve made, or some of the unforced errors, have given a sense that we’re not on the side of ordinary people.”
Asked if Labour was trying to “out-Reform Reform”, she said the party must offer a “common vision” that could use the economy to “unite that progressive voter coalition” rather than “tacking one way or tacking the other”.
She said: “They might not say it like that, but a fairer economy that works in the interests of the many and not the few, and having a story to tell about whose side we’re on, whose interests we’re serving, unites that voter coalition.”
She said she would not want to return to the Cabinet, and would instead act as a “conduit” between the wider party and the Labour leadership. She also suggested that she may have been sacked for being too candid on issues like benefit cuts.
Ms Powell added: “I thought I was doing the job I was supposed to be doing, but maybe that wasn’t feedback people wanted to hear.”
Ms Phillipson, who is seen as Downing Street’s pick, was ahead on MP nominations and has picked up the endorsement of two trade unions – Usdaw and Community – and 10 constituency parties. But polling has suggested Ms Powell has a lead among party members.
Launching her campaign in Sunderland this week, the Education Secretary said: “Back me so I can unite our party, deliver the change we want to see and beat Reform. Back me so together, we can deliver that second term of Labour government.
“Back me so together, we can give more hope to families right across the country. Back me so together, we give every young person the freedoms that for too long, too few enjoyed.”
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