Keir Starmer says Labour must be 'ruthless' as MPs 'seething' over benefits row
Keir Starmer has doubled down on his decision to keep the Tory two-child benefit cap despite warnings MPs are "seething with anger".
The Labour leader insisted the party had to be "ruthless" to win the next election as he faced a backlash at his refusal to scrap the austerity-era policy.
The policy, introduced by George Osborne, prevents parents claiming Universal Credit for any third or subsequent child - leaving parents up to £3,000-a-year worse off per child. Scrapping the cap would lift around 270,000 households with children out of poverty at an estimated cost of £1.4 billion in the first year.
In an appearance alongside Tony Blair at a conference in London, Mr Starmer said people only agreed with making difficult choices as an idea rather than in reality.
He said: "We keep saying collectively as a party that we have to make tough decisions. And in the abstract, everyone says, 'That's right Keir'. But then we get into the tough decision, we've been in one of those for the last few days, and they say, 'We don't like that, can we just not make that one, I'm sure there is another tough decision somewhere else we can make'. But we have to take the tough decisions."
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Tony Blair and Keir Starmer discussed the state of the Labour party at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change's Future of Britain Conference in London (PA)Sharing a stage with the Labour ex-PM for the first time, Mr Starmer said the mood of the country was "pretty bleak" and he wasn't able to speak to voters like Mr Blair did ahead of his landslide victory in 1997.
Labour must be "even tougher, even more focused, even more disciplined" in the run up to next year's election, Mr Starmer said.
But the row has exposed a faultline in Labour ranks ahead of a crunch summit at the weekend to hammer out its policy programme.
His predecessor Jeremy Corbyn claimed MPs in the party were "seething with anger" over the decision.
"I have spoken to many about it, and they are seething with anger, particularly as commitments have been made regularly by the party that we would take children out of poverty," he told LBC.
"Even the Blair government, which Keir Starmer often quotes, did do a great deal to lift children out of poverty by not having a two-child policy."
But despite a Shadow Cabinet minister saying many were "troubled" over the party's stance it is understood no members of the top team spoke out against it at a meeting of Labour's top team.
Mr Starmer told the Shadow Cabinet that "tough choices is not a sound bite" and he would not risk harming working people by losing control of the economy like Liz Truss.
But Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham urged the Labour leader to make it clear that he'd scrap the two-child benefit cap when the economic situation is brighter. He said: "When there is the headroom to do something, this clearly should be at the front of the queue."
Mr Starmer's allies sought to defend the move despite admitting it wasn't a good policy.
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Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, who only last month told the Mirror the policy was “heinous”, said: "We have got to be really disciplined in our approach to public spending and we cannot make unfunded spending commitments."
Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell insisted is "no money left" for the party to roll out reforms it would like due to the Tories' disastrous handling of the economy.
Jess Phillips, the Shadow Domestic Abuse Minister, said it was “objectionable” Labour was being grilled on a policy put forward by the Tories.
She told an event in London: "This is the Tories’ policy and it is not something I wish to defend. It’s not something I voted for, I certainly didn’t. The idea that Keir Starmer doesn’t want to stop children living in poverty is for the birds. Of course, he does. But we live in this situation - I skin the cat that I’ve been given and I’ve been given a broken, mangy cat by this government.”
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