Gordon Brown suggests Keir Starmer should scrap the two-child benefit cap

Gordon Brown was Labour’s last prime minister

Gordon Brown has suggested that Keir Starmer should scrap the two-child benefit cap.

The former prime minister said that he never supported the cap and encouraged the current Labour leader to consider ditching it when he reviews Universal Credit.

Starmer said in July that Labour had no plans to ditch the policy. This led to him being criticised by one of his own MSPs.

Scottish Labour is against the cap, with MP Michael Shanks saying he opposed it in Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election campaign.

The policy means households with more than two children where universal credit or child tax credit is claimed no longer receive additional funds.

Brown told Sky News that the majority of three-children families will be in poverty by 2028 if a change is not made.

He said: “What he said is there’s going to be a review of Universal Credit.

“And I think that’s the right thing to do because there are so many different elements of Universal Credit that have got to be looked at.

“There’s obviously the bedroom tax, There’s obviously the cap on benefits. There was a cap on housing benefits…”

He added: “What I would like to see is a review that is successful in making sure and this is the test of this, that families with children have the basic necessities of life provided for.”

“I think the two child limit, I never supported it … you need a root and branch review of Universal Credit. And I think I can explain why this is, for him, the right thing to do.”

The SNP say that over 87,000 children in Scotland – some nine per cent – are impacted by the Tory two-child cap.

Experts have said that the policy is one of the biggest drivers of child poverty and scrapping the measure would lift 250,000 children – 15,000 in Scotland – out of poverty cost-effectively.

SNP MP Alison Thewliss urged Starmer to listen to his predecessor.

She said: “By refusing to scrap the Tory two-child cap, Sir Keir Starmer is making the political choice to follow in the Tories’ footsteps and consign thousands of families in Scotland to poverty.

“If he won’t listen to calls from the SNP or anti-poverty organisations then I am urging him to heed the words of his predecessor Gordon Brown – to do the right thing and ensure a Labour government abolishes the two-child cap and associated rape clause for good.”

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