Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was ‘personally committed to driving down child poverty’.
Sir Keir Starmer has hinted the two-child benefit cap could be lifted, saying the Government would be taking “a number of measures” to “drive child poverty down”.
The Prime Minister’s comments follow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ signal that she was open to scrapping the limit in her November 26 Budget.
Sir Keir told ITV’s Lorraine programme: “I can tell you in no uncertain terms I’m determined to drive child poverty down.
“It is what the last Labour government did, and it’s one of the things we were proudest of.
“I am personally determined that is what we are going to do.
“You won’t have to wait much longer to see what the measures are.
“Some of them are already in place: the free school meals, the breakfast clubs, free childcare are all part of it.
“But look, we need to do more than that and I can look you in the eye and tell you I am personally committed to driving down child poverty.”
Asked whether that would involve axing the two-child benefit cap, the Prime Minister said in the interview recorded on Monday and broadcast on Tuesday: “I wouldn’t be telling you that we’re going to drive down child poverty if I wasn’t clear that we will be taking a number of measures in order to do so.”
The Government is under increasing pressure from anti-poverty campaigners and from within Labour to end the controversial policy, which restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.
Ms Reeves on Monday said she did not think children should be “penalised” for being part of large families, in the clearest signal so far that she could be open to scrapping the cap entirely.
It had previously been reported the Treasury was looking at different options including whether additional benefits might be limited to three or four children, or whether there could be a taper rate meaning parents would receive the most benefits for their first child and less for subsequent children.
The Chancellor told BBC Radio 5 Live it was important not to let the “costs to our economy in allowing child poverty to go unchecked”.
Campaigners from the Child Poverty Action Group argue that 109 children across the UK are pulled into poverty by the policy every day.
