Starmer sets up taskforce for 4m UK children in poverty

Labour has insisted resources are tight and, ahead of the King’s Speech, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden reiterated the government would not promise what it could not deliver.

But, in a sign of discontent among Labour backbenchers, Mr McDonnell also urged the PM to ditch the two-child cap “within weeks”.

“There’s one simple act that will lift 300,000 children out of poverty this month and it would be the scrapping of the two-child limit,” he said.

The latest Department for Work and Pensions figures showed the two-child cap affected 1.6 million children as of April this year, up from 1.5 million in April 2023, and two-thirds of those families had at least one parent in work.

The House of Commons Library published a report on the policy’s impact, external in February 2024, concluding “This continuing trend of increasing relative poverty has been driven almost entirely by rising poverty among households with three or more children.”

Ministers responsible for the new child poverty taskforce met children’s charities and campaigners, who have united in calling for the two-child cap to go as soon as possible.

One of those charities was Barnardo’s, whose chief executive Lynn Perry said she understood the government had to take tough financial decisions, but added “families need action urgently, starting with a change to this unfair policy”.

Another was UNICEF, whose director Joanna Rea said the new government “must immediately prioritise support for its youngest and most vulnerable citizens, starting with ending the two-child limit policy and removing the benefit cap”.