Rachel Reeves: Labour may be unable to scrap bedroom tax and child benefit cap

Rachel Reeves said Labour’s full plans around benefits and taxation would be set out nearer the general election. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out a Labour government keeping the bedroom tax and abolishing the two-child cap on benefits because of the “dire economic inheritance” it would face.

The shadow chancellor said it was a “sad truth” that if the party came to power it would not be able to undo all the welfare policies it had opposed in parliament.