27th Sep 2025 09:36
(Alliance News) - Backbench Labour MPs and several education unions have called for an end to the two-child benefit cap, as Keir Starmer heads to Liverpool for his party's conference.
The Prime Minister will be joined in the North West by delegates and activists for the event which begins at the weekend and continues until Wednesday.
The annual conference is Starmer's second since he won the keys to No 10, and he faces calls from his own MPs to scrap a Conservative-era ban on most families claiming benefits for more than two children.
The Prime Minister has vowed in a Guardian interview to take "measures to bring down child poverty".
Ahead of the conference, Starmer unveiled plans for a digital ID system, which he told the Global Progress Action summit in London could be "the bedrock of the modern state and will allow for really quite exciting public service reform in the future".
Senior Labour figures are expected to set out the details of a fresh tranche of "New Towns" at the event.
And Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she wanted the UK's independent fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), to "score" a youth mobility scheme with the EU (EU), in a pre-conference interview with the Times.
Former Commons leader Lucy Powell is among the MPs who has called for an end to the two-child cap.
The Manchester Central MP, who was sacked from Starmer's Cabinet during a reshuffle earlier this month, faces Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in the party's ongoing deputy leadership election.
"I want us to be clear that our objective is to lift children out of poverty and that will mean we need to lift the cap," Powell has previously told the Mirror.
Several Labour backbenchers, including Merseyside MPs Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) and Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby), signed a letter to the Prime Minister on Tuesday, arguing the policy "is one of the most significant drivers of child poverty in Britain today".
Two MPs who had the Labour whip suspended for rebelling against the government in a vote on the cap had it reinstated on Friday.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) and Apsana Begum (Poplar and Limehouse) backed an SNP motion calling for an end to the two-child benefit cap in July last year.
When she had the whip reinstated, Begum described child poverty as being a "matter of conscience" for her and said: "I want to be clear: I will continue to oppose the two-child limit at every opportunity."
The National Governance Association (NGA), NAHT (National Association of Head Teachers), the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the National Education Union (NEU), NASUWT and Unison have also written to Starmer.
"This poverty-producing policy is harming the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and young people in our classrooms, and we are calling on government to put an end to this this autumn," their letter read.
Ahead of the conference, Starmer said: "We're going to bring down child poverty.
"That is the clear intent of this government.
"It's my clear personal intent.
"I'm very proud that the last Labour government did so obviously, we've got a taskforce which will report, but we will be taking measures to bring down child poverty."
The Conservatives would "move quickly to reinstate" the cap if Labour scraps it, the shadow work and pensions secretary has vowed.
Helen Whately said: "At a time when Labour's choices are hitting people's pockets across the country, it is only right that families receiving benefits face the same choices as those who are not dependent on welfare.
"The two–child cap is central to that principle – it ensures the system is fair, sustainable, and targeted towards those most in need.
"Let me be clear, if Labour were to scrap the cap, a future Conservative government would move swiftly to reinstate it.
"We cannot allow short–term political gestures, designed to appease deputy leadership candidates and a splintering left–wing vote, to jeopardise the long–term sustainability of our welfare system."
Before the weekend, Starmer also told the Guardian his party does "not have time for introspection", after mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham toured the broadcast studios and spoke to several newspapers and magazines.
Referring to the party led by Nigel Farage, Starmer said: "We cannot miss this opportunity to set out our stall and take the fight to Reform."
He continued: "You know what conference is like, thousands of people, there's great energy, and there's always the usual jostling for who's up, who's down, all the rest of it.
"This is much bigger than that. This goes to the heart of who we are as a country."
Burnham previously revealed in the Telegraph that "people have contacted" him, when he was asked whether MPs had urged him to run for the top job.
He made a pitch for "Manchesterism" to The New Statesman, which he described as a business-friendly "aspirational socialism".
Labour chairwoman Anna Turley has told the PA news agency she did not think "anyone would deny" that her party has had "quite a challenging couple of weeks".
Asked about Burnham claiming that MPs had contacted him about running for the party leadership, she said: "There's an awful lot of MPs who are frustrated at that and actually dislike that and wonder what the motivations are for that.
"Labour MPs want this government to be a success.
"They want to see the vision from the Prime Minister, and they want us to build on the progress we've made in the last year and to lead into a second term. That's what Labour MPs will want."
By Will Durrant and David Hughes, PA Political Staff
source: PA
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