A cabinet minister has given the clearest hint yet that the Government will lift the controversial two-child benefit cap – in what would be a boost to hundreds of thousands of hard-pressed families.
Figures released in the summer show almost 1.7 million children are impacted by the two-child limit, in nearly 470,000 households.
Speaking with broadcasters on Sunday morning, Ms Phillipson said Labour would never have brought in the policy and she is “clear what needs to happen” next.
She told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “There’s an urgency to this. With every year that passes more children are moving to poverty because of the two-child limit.
Bridget Phillipson said she will argue the case in Cabinet for the cap to the lifted (Jeff Overs/BBC/PA)
“It was a Tory policy. We would not have introduced it. I’m clear what needs to happen. I’ll be in Cabinet arguing for that, and that’s why I’ve made tackling child poverty my number one priority during this campaign.”
Asked if she is prepared to quit her ministerial role if the Government does not abolish the limit, the Education Secretary told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I am confident that we as a Government will do the right thing by children growing up in poverty in our country.
“We’ve already started that process, there’s more to do, I will make that happen.”
Freed from Cabinet collective responsibility, Ms Powell has urged the Government to be clearer about wanting to scrap the two-child cap – a significant issue for many Labour backbenchers.
