Keir Starmer has come beneath additional stress to scrap the two-child profit restrict after one other of his backbench MPs described the coverage as “heinous”.
Writing in The Sunday Instances, Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield mentioned the cap, which got here into impact beneath then-chancellor George Osborne in 2017, was “sinister and overtly sexist” and had been the principle cause driving her to face for parliament.
Greater than a dozen backbenchers are understood to assist an modification to the king’s speech.
The SNP has additionally tabled an modification to scrap the restrict, which prevents mother and father from claiming common credit score or youngster tax credit score for a 3rd youngster with a couple of exemptions.
Duffield mentioned: “The plain goal is the caricature of the ‘feckless’, ‘irresponsible’ individuals who drop youngsters each jiffy with out with the ability to pay for them, however the subtext is altogether extra sinister: it’s an assault on girls’s proper to decide on what number of youngsters they’ve.”
The MP criticised the so-called “rape clause” which offers an exception for youngsters conceived by way of an assault, saying: “The authors of this coverage are telling girls: open up to a collection of whole strangers that your third or any subsequent youngsters are the results of rape and we can pay you in any case.”
The UK authorities mentioned there are 4 million youngsters residing in poverty, a rise of 700,000 since 2010.
The 2-child profit cap impacts 1.6 million youngsters, based on the newest figures from the Division for Work and Pensions.
Likening the coverage to the dystopian society in Margaret Attwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Story, wherein girls are disadvantaged of their rights, Duffield mentioned girls have been being “subjugated based on their social class”.
The brand new authorities has introduced a taskforce to develop a toddler poverty technique, led by Work and Pensions secretary Liz Kendall and training secretary Bridget Phillipson.
Lots of the charities consulted by Kendall earlier within the week have additionally known as for the cap to be abolished.
Ministers have beforehand instructed the state of the general public funds means they can’t afford to abolish the cap.
The Commons chief, Lucy Powell, informed MPs on Thursday: “As an incoming Labour authorities, we’re completely dedicated to tackling youngster poverty and all the basis causes of kid poverty, which is why the prime minister introduced the federal government taskforce taking a look at these issues yesterday.
“We have been clear in our manifesto that the financial circumstances don’t presently enable for us to abolish the cap.
“Financial stability is the only largest factor we will do to make sure that youngsters don’t fall into poverty, as a result of when the financial system crashes, it’s the poorest in society who pay the heaviest worth.”
