LABOUR’S Andy Burnham has backed Anas Sarwar’s calls for a Labour government to abolish the two-child benefit cap.
Party leader Keir Starmer attracted fierce criticism when he said Labour had no plans to scrap the policy, as he instead insisted his party could impose the cap “more fairly” than the Tories.
In an interview with the Sunday Mail, Greater Manchester Mayor Burnham (below) branded the Tory policy, which means families who claim child tax credits or Universal Credit can only do so for their first two children, as “immoral”.
However, Burnham played down any divisions with Scottish Labour despite the fact that a number of MSPs were critical of Starmer’s plans.
“I don’t think there is as much of a divide as people say between Scottish and UK Labour on this.
“I have been in government and I know you can’t just go around making commitments without properly saying how they will be paid for.”
He added: “The two-child policy is causing real hardship – it is driving child poverty and homelessness. I understand where Keir is coming from because it’s not just the two-child cap, you have the benefits cap overall, the two-child policy and the freeze on local housing allowance and it is the effect of all these things together that is really brutal and appalling.
“The Conservatives take this tough line on benefits because they want it to be a wedge issue. George Osborne introduced the two-child cap to divide people – it was an immoral policy.”
Call for co-operation
Elsewhere, Burnham said there were “lots of opportunities” for the north of England and Scotland to work together
He said: “There’s lots of opportunity for collaboration where Scotland and the north could be working together to create jobs, improve our housing stock and make sure children aren’t living in cold, damp properties.”
Burnham added that any move to take decisions without Westminster involvement would lead to “a better world”.
Widely tipped as a future Labour Party leader, Burnham ran twice, losing to Ed Miliband in 2010 and Jeremy Corbyn (below) in 2015.
But he says for now he is now more interested in working directly with the Scottish Government after meeting SNP First Minister Humza Yousaf earlier this week.
Burnham said: “I am keen to talk to him about the reindustrialisation of Scotland and the north of England via net zero.
“This is a genuine opportunity but at the UK-level it’s increasingly clear that there’s a desperate and nasty attempt to make the next election a highly divisive culture war.”
The Greater Manchester mayor also talked about the state of British politics and said the right will try to divide people by “going after the lowest common denominator”.
Burnham added: “We’ve hit a point where the country is fundamentally broken.
“I’m sure it is the same in Scotland. There is sewage on the beaches and in the rivers, trains don’t run properly, people can't afford to heat their homes on a normal salary – it's chaotic and needs to change."
