Prime Minister Keir Starmer came under fire as he appeared on Lorraine to discuss child poverty in the UK.
Keir Starmer appeared on Lorraine to discuss child poverty in the UK (Image: ITV)
Lorraine fans were left voicing the same complaint as Keir Starmer discussed child poverty in the UK with Dr Amir Khan. The Prime Minister addressed the rumours that the two child benefit cap will be lifted in Rachel Reeves‘ Autumn budget later this month. Introduced by the Conservative government in 2017, the two-child cap prevents households claiming universal credit or child tax credit from receiving payments for a third or subsequent child born after April 2017.
Speaking to Dr Amir about his plans to tackle child poverty, the Labour leader said: “I can tell you in no uncertain terms I am determined to drive child poverty down. It is what the last Labour government did and it’s one of the things we are 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, breakfast clubs and free childcare are all part of it, but 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.”
When pressed on whether that means the two child benefit cap will be scrapped, Starmer replied: “You won’t have to wait much longer but I wouldn’t be telling you 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 interview sparked heavy backlash, with viewers slamming the politician online.
One wrote: “Watching it the questions to @Keir_Starmer on #Lorraine He really does make my skin crawl.. what a vile and disgusting man!”
Another raged: “You’ve got to laugh. How f***ing desperate to try and push this PM as someone with empathy and feelings. He has as much personality as a LOG! LABOUR LYING LABOUR ARE FINISHED.”
The Prime Minister addressed the rumours that the two child benefit cap will be lifted in the Autumn Budget (Image: ITV)
A third echoed: “Get that slime ball off my screen… Dr Amir gone right down in my estimation.”
Hitting out, a fourth said: “What a shame he didn’t signal the change a year and a half ago when this anti-poverty move was ruled out by both him and by Reeves. Move is simply strategic to head off critics. Labour is a moral crusade or it is nothing. Under Starmer, it is nothing.”
Another fumed: “It isn’t fair on taxpayers to increase benefits by scrapping the two-child benefit cap, at the same time as raising taxes on everyone else. Wrong.”
The Conservatives have vowed to keep the cap as they say taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for families who have more children than they can afford.
