Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has urged the government to scrap the two-child cap on benefits, warning that rising poverty in the UK 'would make Charles Dickens furious'. In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Lord Kinnock also called for a wealth tax on the top 1% to help fund the move.
Lord Kinnock, who led Labour in opposition between 1983 and 1992, is the latest senior party figure to pressure the government to end the two-child limit, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017. He acknowledged the government may not be able to scrap the cap 'all at once', but said doing so would lift about 600,000 children out of poverty.
The peer suggested a wealth tax could fund the change, saying: 'I know it’s the economics of Robin Hood, but I don’t think there is anything terribly bad about that.' He warned that child poverty had risen over the 15 years of Conservative rule, describing the current situation as 'Dickensian'.
Last month, government data showed nearly 1.7 million children now live in households affected by the two-child limit, with a further 37,000 affected in the year to April. A government spokesperson said the child poverty taskforce would publish an ambitious strategy later this year to tackle the root causes of child poverty.
