Britain is facing a poverty crisis not seen in over fifty years, according to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has issued an urgent call for the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap. Brown has pressed Prime Minister Keir Starmer to eliminate the controversial welfare limit in the upcoming budget, describing the current conditions as a “social crisis” tearing Britain apart.
Brown, who also served as Labour chancellor, has thrown his support behind a new report by The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), which argues that up to 500,000 children could be lifted out of poverty by removing the cap. He proposed that reforms to gambling taxes, targeting what he describes as an “under-taxed” industry, could generate the necessary £3.2 billion to fund the policy reversal.
The two-child benefit cap, introduced in 2017 under Conservative Chancellor George Osborne, blocks welfare support for any third or subsequent child born after April of that year. The measure has long been criticized by anti-poverty campaigners and progressive politicians who argue it punishes large families and deepens inequality.
“Look, we’re dealing with a divided Britain. We’re dealing with a social crisis. We’re dealing with poor children that are living what you might say are separate lives… we’re talking about children that are far from the mainstream, and something’s got to be done.”
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Two-Child Cap Faces Mounting Scrutiny
Brown emphasized that the impact of the benefit cap will continue to grow unless action is taken swiftly. “This problem is getting worse. It’s going to worsen over the next few years, because there’s a built-in escalator in the poverty figures, because of the two-child rule,” he warned. Drawing from his personal experiences, Brown spoke of the deteriorating conditions in his hometown.
“I live in the constituency in which I grew up. I still live here. I see every day this situation getting worse, and I did not think I would see the kind of poverty I saw when I was growing up, when we had slum housing, when we had traveling people coming to my school. This is a return to the kind of poverty of 60 years ago, and I think we’ve got to act now, and that’s why it’s urgent that we take action in this budget.”
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown
He issued a direct warning to the Labour leadership: “You cannot have a situation where under a Labour government, child poverty numbers just go up and up, and up.”
While Starmer is believed to support removing the cap, economic constraints could hinder such a move. Recent warnings from top economists have indicated a projected £51 billion deficit in public finances, raising concerns over how such a significant welfare expansion could be funded without triggering fiscal instability.
Despite these hurdles, Brown insisted that failing to address the problem is not an option. “You cannot leave unaddressed something that is a cancer in our society, which is children growing up and going to school ill-clad and hungry,” he stated.
The pressure is mounting from within the Labour Party as well. Several MPs have called on the Prime Minister to take decisive action. Critics argue that repealing the cap is the single most effective step toward reducing child poverty in the UK, with estimates suggesting that around 100 children fall below the poverty line each day due to the current policy.
Kate Osborne, Labour MP for Jarrow and Gateshead East, stood firmly behind Brown’s call. “Tackling child poverty should be our number one priority. Child poverty scars people for life,” she said. Highlighting the impact on her region, she added, “The North East has the highest levels of child poverty, it has reached nearly 40 per cent in my constituency.”
Osborne concluded with a rallying call for urgent reform: “Scrapping the cap would take 500,000 kids out of poverty immediately—it should be done as soon as possible and should be paid for by taxing the richest in society and those that make a profit out of other people’s pain and addiction.”
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