The expansion of free school meals is a “down payment” on the plan to lift children out of poverty, Sir Keir Starmer has said, as he did not rule out scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
The prime minister hinted that he wants to go further after opening up free school dinners to half a million more pupils.
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Currently only those whose parents or guardians have an income of less than £7,400 a year are eligible, but from 2026 it will include children in households on universal credit – a move welcomed by child poverty campaigners.
Asked if the change is a substitute for lifting the two-child benefit cap, or laying the groundwork to do so, Sir Keir described it as a “statement of intent” that he’s wanted to do “for a long time”.
Pressed if intent meant going further and lifting the cap, he said: “I would say this is a down payment on child poverty. We’ve got a taskforce that will come out with a strategy.
“I want to get to the root causes of child poverty. One of the greatest things the last Labour government did was to drive down child poverty. I am determined we will do that.”
Sir Keir has been under pressure to lift the cap from the moment he entered Downing Street, with seven Labour MPs suspended within weeks of last year’s general election for voting with the SNP to scrap the cap.
The cap was announced by the then Conservative chancellor George Osborne before coming into force in 2017 and prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credits from the third child onwards, except in very limited circumstances.
Sir Keir Starmer visits a school to outline the government’s plans to extend free school meals. Pic: PA
It was supposed to encourage parents to work, but has plunged a rising number of children into poverty, multiple studies have shown.
This includes 10,000 more children in the first three months of the Labour government, the Child Poverty Action Group found, adding to the 4.3 million children already living in relative poverty across the UK.
Poverty taskforce delayed
The government has resisted calls to scrap the cap, instead announcing a child poverty taskforce last July to look at tackling the “root causes” of child poverty, which essentially kicked the issue into the long grass.
It was due to report its findings this spring but publication has been pushed back to later this year, fuelling speculation the government wants to use the next budget in the autumn to fund the policy.
According to the Resolution Foundation, axing the cap would lift 500,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament at a cost of £4.5bn.
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Child benefit reform ‘not off the table’
The thinktank said the government’s child poverty strategy won’t be credible without a commitment to scrap the limit, as other welfare cuts mean child poverty is projected to rise to an all-time high of 4.6 million by 2029.
Pressure is mounting on the government following a drubbing at last month’s local elections fuelled by the rise in Reform UK’s popularity.
Reform leader Nigel Farage has committed his party to scrapping the two-child cap, as well as reinstating the winter fuel benefit in full.
Sir Keir has recently U-turned on his unpopular cuts to the winter fuel allowance, though the government has ruled out a return to all pensioners receiving it.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said more people will get the payment this winter, but it will likely still be means tested in some form.
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Calls to bring back Sure Start
As well as being urged to scrap the two-child benefit cap, there are growing calls for ministers to revive Sure Start centres, seen by many in the party as one of the crowning achievements of New Labour.
The early years service had a “remarkably long-lasting” positive impact on the health and education outcomes of children, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies last month found.
They were disbanded by the coalition government, but the Child Task Force is expected to recommend their return, according to The Guardian.
At a Westminster Hall debate on Wednesday, Labour MP for Bournemouth East Tom Hayes said stamping out child poverty required “nothing less than the resurrection of Sure Start”.
Meanwhile, writing in Labour List this week, Rother Valley MP Jake Richards suggested investing in Sure Start would be a better long-term approach to child poverty than removing the two-child benefit cap, saying family centres could deliver “tangible change” across the country on the government’s key missions.
