Rayner refuses to confirm if two-child benefit cap will be abolished

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has refused to confirm whether the government is planning to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

On Sunday, the Observer reported that Sir Keir Starmer had privately backed abolishing the limit and requested the Treasury find the £3.5bn to do so.

The policy prevents most families from claiming means-tested benefits for any third or additional children born after April 2017.

Asked on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg if she would like to see the cap go, Rayner said: “I’m not going to speculate on what our government is going to do.”

She pointed to the establishment of a Child Poverty Taskforce, which had been considering whether to remove it, among other measures.

“We’re looking in the round at the challenges. That is one element,” she said, giving plans to speed up housebuilding as an example.

It follows the delay of the government’s child poverty strategy – being worked on by the taskforce – which had been due for publication in the spring. The BBC has been told it could be set out in the autumn.

On Tuesday, a memo from Rayner’s department leaked to the Daily Telegraph appeared to urge the chancellor to “claw back” child benefit payments from wealthier families, alongside several other suggestions.

Asked if she backed the proposal on Sunday, Rayner refused to be drawn. She told Laura Kuessberg that ministers were “looking at child poverty” and that she supported what the government had done so far.

She was also categoric in her denial of being behind the leak. “I do not leak. I think leaks are very damaging,” she said.

It was put to Rayner that some in Labour had characterised her as jostling for Sir Keir’s job as a result of the memo being shared.

“I do not want to run for leader of the Labour Party. I rule it out,” she said, adding that being the deputy prime minister was the “honour of my life”.

She also denied that there were splits in Sir Keir’s cabinet, saying: “I can reassure you the government is solid.”

Questions around the two-child benefit cap come after the prime minister announced a U-turn on cuts to winter fuel payments, following weeks of mounting pressure.

Sir Keir said the policy would be changed in the autumn Budget, adding that ministers would only “make decisions we can afford”.

Asked if any change would arrive before this winter, Rayner said it would be for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to outline at the “next fiscal event”.

More than 10 million pensioners lost out on the top-up payments, worth up to £300 a year, when it was limited to only those in receipt of pension credit.

On Sunday, Nigel Farage said he would fully reinstate the allowance and scrap the two-child benefit cap if Reform UK formed the next government.

“Farage says a lot of things,” Rayner said in response to a question about his remarks.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch later told the programme of Farage’s intervention: “This is nonsense. People are just making promises, throwing out all sorts of things, but they won’t be delivered.”

The country could not afford to lift the two-child benefit cap, she said, adding the public are “sick and tired of politicians making promises they cannot keep”.

However, when asked about winter fuel payments, Badenoch urged the government to restore them in full.