Labour MP calls two-child child benefit cap ‘abhorrent’ in latest call for measure to be scrapped | Child Benefits

Keir Starmer has come under renewed pressure to scrap the two-child limit on child benefit after another of his backbenchers branded the policy “abhorrent”.

In an article published in the Sunday Times, Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield said the cap, which came into force under then-Chancellor George Osborne in 2017, was “sinister and blatantly sexist” and was the main reason she decided to run for parliament.

More than a dozen backbenchers are said to support an amendment to the King’s Speech.

The SNP has also tabled an amendment to remove the limit, which prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third child, with some exceptions.

Duffield said: “The obvious target is the caricature of ‘irresponsible’ and ‘unaccountable’ people who abandon their children every few minutes without being able to pay for them, but the subtext is much more sinister: this is an attack on the right of women to choose the number of children they want to have.”

The MP criticised the so-called “rape clause” which makes an exception for children conceived as a result of an assault, saying: “The authors of this policy are saying to women: reveal to a series of complete strangers that your third or any subsequent child is the result of rape and we will pay you after all.”

The UK government says 4 million children are living in poverty, an increase of 700,000 since 2010.

The two-child benefit cap affects 1.6 million children, according to the latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Comparing the policy to the dystopian society in Margaret Attwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, in which women are disenfranchised, Duffield said women were “subjugated according to their social class.”

The new government has announced a taskforce to develop a strategy to tackle child poverty, led by Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.

Many charities consulted by Kendall earlier in the week also called for the cap to be removed.

Ministers have already suggested that the state of public finances does not allow them to abolish this ceiling.

Commons Leader Lucy Powell told MPs on Thursday: “As a new Labour government we are absolutely committed to tackling child poverty and all the root causes of child poverty, which is why the Prime Minister yesterday announced the government taskforce to look at these issues.

“We have made it clear in our manifesto that economic circumstances do not currently allow us to remove the cap.

“Economic stability is the best thing we can do to ensure that children do not fall into poverty, because when the economy collapses, it is the poorest in society who pay the highest price.”