Thirty-five MPs are backing a Commons move calling on Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child benefit limit.
They include London MP Jeremy Corbyn (Independent- Islington North), as well as three Labour MPs in the capital, Dawn Butler (Brent East), John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) and Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill).
The MPs have signed a Commons motion tabled by Liverpool Riverside Labour MP Kim Johnson calling for the two-child benefit restriction to be ditched.
It states: “This House recognises the new data published by the Department for Work and Pensions on the two-child limit to benefit payments which shows that there are now 1.6 million children living in families impacted by this policy, or one in every nine children.
“It further recognises that of those families impacted 59 per cent are working households, and that 3100 women were granted an exemption to the limit as a result of non-consensual conception under the rape clause.
“It notes that if scrapped this policy would lift 300,000 children out of poverty immediately; and calls on the Government to scrap the two-child limit.”
The Early Day Motion has no likelihood of becoming law but it is the first sign of dozens of MPs formally moving to demand the axing of the cap.
Nineteen Labour MPs, many on the Left of the party, have so far signed it.
But far more Labour backbenchers, and some frontbenchers, privately oppose the cap.
Ms Johnson has tabled an amendment to the King’s Speech in a bid to force the Government to act on the issue.
She has criticised the two-child benefit cap as “cruel, punitive and pushing struggling families into further poverty”.
Mr McDonnell has signalled he would table an amendment to the Finance Bill, to implement a Budget in the autumn, if needed to end the restriction.
The moves are backed by MPs from the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party, the Greens, as well as Plaid Cymru.
But the Government is so far resisting the pressure to remove the cap, stressing that it faces “tough decisions” given the dire state of the public finances.
Before becoming Prime Minister, Sir Keir said he would ditch the two-child limit “in an ideal world” but added that “we haven’t got the resources to do it at the moment”.
Ministers have emphasised that they would not be making “unfunded spending commitments” and are relying on getting healthy economic growth in Britain to invest more in public services and social justice.
If it came to a showdown Commons vote, the Government has a majority of 174 so is unlikely to suffer a defeat, but could be hit by a revolt from scores of backbench MPs, parliamentary aides and even some ministers.
The cap, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, prevents parents claiming Universal Credit or child tax credits for a third child, except in very limited circumstances.
Figures published recently by the Department for Work and Pensions showed there were 1.6 million children living in households affected by the cap as of April this year, up from 1.5 million to April 2023.
Of these, 52 per cent of children were in households with three children, 29 per cent in households with four children, and 19 per cent in households with five or more children.
The Resolution Foundation has said that abolishing the two-child limit would cost the Government somewhere between £2.5 billion and £3.6 billion in 2024/25, but that such costs are “low compared to the harm that the policy causes”.
