Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that Labour will not scrap the two-child benefit cap and the so-called rape clause. 

In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the Labour leader refused to be drawn on a number of other spending commitments but was definite on the policy recently described by his Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jon Ashworth as “heinous”. 

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Labour politicians in Scotland blasted the unwillingness to ditch the cap.

MSP Monica Lennon said it was the "wrong position" while her Holyrood colleague Mercedes Villalba pointed out that Sir Keir had promised to scrap the two-child limit during his bid to become party leader.

The two-child policy was introduced by George Osborne in his 2015 budget. It came into effect in 2017 after MPs backed the measure in the House of Commons.

It means that households claiming child tax credit or universal credit are unable to claim for a third or subsequent child born after 6 April 2017.

Earlier this week, the latest statistics revealed that 1.5 million children were growing up in families impacted by the cap. Children's charities, including Barnados and the Child Poverty Action Group have said this "tax on siblings" is the "biggest driver of rising child poverty in the UK today."

There is an exemption for families where that third child is the result of “non-consensual conception.”

The only way this clause can be used to bypass the cap is for the mother to disclose their rape to the Department for Work and Pensions.

There were 2,590 households affected by this exemption last year. 

Pressed on spending more on public services, Sir Keir said; “A Labour government always will invest in our public services.”

He criticised a lack of “long-term thinking” by the Conservative government. 

“Take the NHS, the strains on the NHS are very different to the strains 75 years ago so we have to reform and change the NHS so it’s fit for the future.

“If all we do is simply patch up and keep going then we won’t fix the fundamentals and that’s why reform is so important.”

Pressed again if he would spend more money, he said: “A Labour government will always want to invest in its public services. The way to invest in our public services is to grow our economy.”

He said that would mean "responsible economics" coupled with reform.

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Sir Keir suggested he does not mind if people brand him a fiscal conservative.

“I don’t mind what label people on me. I do want to make my argument. I do want to make my argument," he said.

“My argument is this. What was absolutely plain from last year’s mini-budget is if you lose control of the economy, it’s working people who pay.”

The leader of the opposition was then asked about specific policies. Asked if the two-child benefit cap would change under a Labour government, he replied: “We're not changing that.”

When asked about housing benefit, and whether it would be unfrozen, he said: “Well, we will set that out closer to the election or when we set that out. I'm not committing to that here.” 

Asked if a Labour Government would look at Bank of England’s inflation, possibly raising it from 2% to 4%, he replied: “Well, again, that's something I think for us to address closer to the election. 

“We've got probably two maybe three fiscal events before the election. We need to wait until we see what the state of the economy is.”

During the interview, Sir Keir said he would not detail specifics when asked how he would approach the public sector pay dispute differently.

“This is the Government’s problem. They as good as broke our public services, they’ve created a situation in which wages have been stagnant for many, many years and they need to sort out this mess.”

Asked how, Sir Keir said: “I’d do this differently by growing the economy. We have to grow, grow, grow our economy.”

Pressed further to give details on his plan, Sir Keir said: “We would be around the table negotiating and we would settle this dispute. I think many people would say ‘why has it taken this long even to have one step towards progress’ because many people have had their operations cancelled, many people have been deeply affected by these strikes.”

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Taking to Twitter following the interview, Ms Lennon tweeted: This is the wrong position and it’s down to us as Labour members to change it."

Ms Villalba said:" Keir Starmer was elected leader of the Labour Party on a pledge to scrap the two-child limit.

"It's what Labour members want, it's what the public expects, and it's what the country needs. Labour must be a Party of principle that puts the people first."
 

Former Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard shared a two-year-old tweet from Sir Keir's deputy, Angela Rayner, describing the cap as "obscene and inhumane."

First Minister Humza Yousaf tweeted: "Poverty experts say scrapping the two-child limit would lift up to 15,000 children in Scotland out of poverty. Why on earth is Starmer committed to keeping this cruel Tory policy?"