Six Labour Members of Parliament who had been suspended for protesting against the two-child benefit limit are urging Rachel Reeves to abolish the “inhumane” policy completely. They argue that the Labour government cannot justify keeping the policy in place and that eliminating it would demonstrate a commitment to addressing the financial struggles faced by millions of families.

The MPs, including John McDonnell, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Ian Byrne, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, and Imran Hussain, who had their party privileges reinstated after rebelling against the government last summer, have written to Reeves emphasizing the detrimental impact of the two-child benefit limit on children born into disadvantaged circumstances.

They assert that the policy unfairly penalizes children and insist that the government should prioritize lifting children out of poverty by scrapping the two-child cap. They are calling on Reeves to announce the full abolition of the policy in the upcoming Budget in November.

The push for policy change coincides with discussions by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves on whether to amend or eliminate the policy originally introduced by former Chancellor George Osborne almost ten years ago. This policy restricts Child Tax Credits and Universal Credit to the first two children in a family and has been criticized by charitable organizations for perpetuating child poverty.

The government is expected to release the findings of its child poverty review alongside the Budget, which may include recommendations regarding the two-child benefit limit. Recent warnings from the Resolution Foundation suggest that partial measures, such as moving to a three-child limit or reducing benefits for additional children, would still result in higher rates of child poverty by the end of the decade.

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, also supports the call to abolish the policy and has criticized the decision to remove party privileges from MPs who opposed the government’s stance on the issue. He expressed disappointment, stating that such punitive actions were not consistent with the principles he observed during his time in the Labour government under Brown and Blair.