UK opposition leader Keir Starmer faced criticism from across his own Labour party over a pledge to keep a controversial limit on child benefits brought in by the governing Conservatives.
(Bloomberg) — UK opposition leader Keir Starmer faced criticism from across his own Labour party over a pledge to keep a controversial limit on child benefits brought in by the governing Conservatives.
Four Labour mayors, including London’s Sadiq Khan, are opposing Starmer’s announcement that he would keep the two-child cap on benefits, according to people familiar with their thinking. They add to several members of Starmer’s top team who strongly criticized the Tory policy before their own leader’s reversal on the matter.
The push-back highlights the tricky balance Starmer is trying to strike as he bids to lead Labour back to power after more than 13 years in opposition. The Labour leadership is seeking to convince voters that the party will not be reckless with public spending if it wins a general election due by January 2025. But that comes at the price of abandoning previous Labour promises of largess and riling both the party’s members and its traditional supporters.
The Child Poverty Action Group charity estimates that scrapping the current Conservative policy that prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for their third child would cost the exchequer some £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) a year — while lifting 250,000 children out of poverty and benefiting another 850,000 children still in poverty. But Starmer told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that Labour was “not changing that policy” if it gets into power.
Traditionally, the Conservative Party has sought to portray Labour as reckless with the public finances during election campaigns, a charge Starmer is determined to counter. But that also risks alienating his own party.
Khan, along with Liverpool City Mayor Steve Rotheram, West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin and Marvin Rees, the Mayor of Bristol, all think the cap should be scrapped, the people familiar said.
The backlash extends further than that, from lawmakers who are concerned that Labour’s focus on fiscal restraint means they are not offering voters enough hope or change from the status quo.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar told the Daily Record newspaper Monday that his regional party will “continue to oppose the two child limit.” Meanwhile, Rosie Duffield, a Member of Parliament on the right of the party, and Zarah Sultana, a left-wing MP, both opposed Starmer’s position on Twitter.
Several members of Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet, including Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, and Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, have previously strongly condemned the two-child cap.
Separately, Jamie Driscoll, another regional mayor who is also on the left of the party, resigned from Labour on Monday after he was blocked from standing for the party.
–With assistance from Kitty Donaldson and Emily Ashton.
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