Sir Keir Starmer wants to end child poverty. One of his defining five missions is to “break down barriers to opportunity … to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain”. And last year he pledged his government would be “laser-focused on poverty”.
Fine words, and this week gives the chance to prove them. Amid the proposed laws in this government’s first king’s speech should be one that scraps the two-child cap on benefits. It impoverishes children, penalises ethnic minorities and humiliates women who have been raped. Unfair and morally repugnant, it is “the worst social security policy ever”, say academic experts. And government ministers know this.
