Gordon Brown rejects Tory claims that ending benefit cap encourages ‘welfare scroungers’

03 December 2025 , 08:03

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Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Kemi Badenoch and her allies should “hang their heads in shame” after saying Rachel Reeves had created a ‘Budget for Benefits Street.

Former PM Gordon Brown criticized the Conservatives for their rhetoric on welfare.

Gordon Brown has accused the Tories of “peddling lies” about the two-child benefit limit with cruel myths about workshy families.

The former Prime Minister said Kemi Badenoch and her allies should “hang their heads in shame” after saying Rachel Reeves had created “Benefits Street” with her Budget. Mr. Brown said the Tories had created a generation of "austerity’s children" and driven 4.5 million children into poverty with their policies.

And he dismissed the party’s claims that scrapping the two-child benefit limit would encourage people to rely on benefits. The Tory policy - which means parents can only claim Universal Credit and tax credits for their first two kids - will be scrapped in full from April.

The move will lift an estimated 450,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament. But the Conservative leader branded it a ‘Budget for Benefits Street’, in reference to a controversial Channel 4 documentary from 2014.

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Writing in the Mirror, Mr. Brown said: “Now Kemi Badenoch plans to run a nationwide campaign from here to the next election about what she calls ‘Benefits Street’ - telling hard-pressed working families that their taxes are paying for ‘welfare scroungers’ to ‘game’ the social security system. The picture they are painting is completely wrong. Untrue. They are peddling lies.

"The majority - 60 percent - of children affected by the rule have a parent in work. Another 15 percent are under 3 and in single-parent families where all too often the children are too young - or childcare is too expensive - for the mother to work. If any of the rest were to claim incapacity benefit, they lose £50 a week from April.

"If they are unemployed and qualify for help they face a benefit cap which limits total benefits, no matter how many children you have, to £423 a week including rent - not the £40,000 a year the Tories claim."

The Labour grandee argued that larger families will be incentivized to go back to work as they will be hit by the benefit cap, which limits how much people who aren’t in work can claim.

He continued: "The Tories should be hanging their heads in shame. For 14 years they increased the number of children living in poverty to 4.5 million.

"Their record on poverty is why so many teenagers are ill-equipped for school and now make up the one million not in education, training, or employment.

"It’s to help young people get into work that to her credit Rachel Reeves has announced a new policy that will help those victims of Tory spending cuts – Austerity’s Children - to get their first job.