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A former Labour leader has called on Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child benefit cap to lift hundreds of thousands of young people out of poverty.
Neil Kinnock said the government should introduce a wealth tax on the country’s richest people to help pay for it.
His comments come just two weeks after another ex-Labour leader, Gordon Brown, also called for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.
The controversial policy, which was introduced by the last Tory government, prevents families on Universal Credit from receiving payments for more than their first two children.
Official data shows nearly 1.7 million young people live in households hit by the cap – an increase of 37,000 in the past 12 months.
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Kinnock – who led Labour to defeat in the 1987 and 1992 general elections – said ending the cap would transform the lives of the poorest children.
He said: “I really want them to move in that direction because the figures are that if that did occur it would mean that about 600,000 kids fewer are in poverty.”
Lord Kinnock said the current levels of child poverty in the UK “would make Charles Dickens furious”.
He said: “It’s been allowed to happen because the kids are voiceless and their parents feel powerless. I defy anybody to see a child in need and not want to help.”
The Labour peer repeated his previous calls for a tax on the assets of the richest 1% of people in the UK to help pay for the plan.
“I know it’s the economics of Robin Hood, but I don’t think there is anything terribly bad about that,” he said.
Starmer said before the election that Labour could not afford to lift the two-child cap, but is thought to support the idea if the money to pay for it can be found.
However, No.10 sources said the recent backbench rebellion on welfare reforms, which saw the government ditch plans to slash £5 billion from the benefits bill, meant lifting the two-child cap was not affordable.
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