Here’s one dog that didn’t bark at Labour’s conference, amid the clapping and the sparkling. Only a few months ago, Keir Starmer’s refusal to pledge to reverse the two-child benefit cap – which tips hundreds of thousands of children into extreme poverty – was greeted with howls of pain and indignation. The shadow cabinet challenged him over it, and Meg Hillier, the chair of the public accounts committee, was among the many appalled Labour voices who objected.
Why did he do it? It wasn’t planned, but a badly handled answer to an interview question that should have had a boilerplate reply: he would not be bounced into unfunded spending commitments that had not yet been agreed. Had he said he’d abolish it, he’d be chased on every other benefit. It was a needless mistake that should have been side-stepped.
