Gordon Brown has said the Tories should ‘hang their heads in shame’ for ‘peddling cruel myths’ about the impact of scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
Last week, Rachel Reeves announced in her autumn budget that Labour would scrap the two-child limit, a measure set to lift some 450,000 children out of poverty.
But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch slammed the move, labelling it a ‘budget for Benefits Street.’
This has been followed by predictable claims from the Tories and the right that scrapping the cap will encourage unemployed parents to have more children so they can claim more welfare.
Now, Gordon Brown has debunked these claims, condemning the Tories for their language around the budget.
READ NEXT: Nigel Farage tells donors he expects Reform election deal with Tories – report
Writing in the Mirror, the former Labour PM, who has been a huge advocate for scrapping the child-benefit cap, encouraged the government to “deploy the right arguments to win the war of public opinion.”
He said: “That means exposing this week’s Tory lie that abolition does not help children out of poverty, but simply subsidises the workshy, the indolent and the feckless parents on benefits
“It was the omnishambles Tory Chancellor George Osborne who first claimed that unemployed mothers were having third and fourth children simply to get extra welfare cash.
“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.”
Brown highlighted how 60% of children affected by the measure have a parent in work, whilst another 15% are under three and in single parent families “where all too often the children are too young – or child care is too expensive – for the mother to work.”
Brown also explained how a benefit cap on total benefits means people can’t claim more than £423 a week including rent, no matter how many children they have.
He continued: “For many larger families, the extra cash given with one hand by abolishing the two-child limit will be partly or wholly taken away with the other, as they come up against this benefit cap.
“Indeed many families can gain more for their third or fourth child if they can get work earning £200 a week or more.
“So the change represents an incentive for parents to get back to work quickly, making working families the big beneficiaries of the new policy. The Tories should be hanging their heads in shame.”
Brown finished by pointing out how under 14 years of Tory rule, the number of children living in poverty increased to 4.5 million, and praised Keir Starmer and the chancellor for taking measures to reverse the damage done by years of austerity.
He concluded: “As Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have both said this week, they are on a moral mission to end poverty – and with more breakfast clubs, family hubs and free school meals promised in the forthcoming child poverty review, Britain is taking the next steps to build a future fit for every child.”