Labour should have scrapped two child cap on day one in office, Swinney says

Sir Keir Starmer’s Government should have abolished the two child cap on some benefits on their first day in office, Scotland’s First Minister has insisted.

While reports at the weekend suggested the UK Government is considering scrapping the cap, John Swinney said the devolved Scottish Government was “taking the steps” to mitigate it north of the border.

His comments came as he told how he had asked the Prime Minister not to implement policies that would make it “more difficult” for him to achieve his ambition of eradicating child poverty.

As it stands the benefit cap means families can only claim some benefits for their first two children, reducing the help they can receive for any subsequent offspring.

But with Mr Swinney having made ending child poverty one of his Government’s key objectives, the Scottish Government has announced plans to mitigate this from April 2026.

Reports suggested the UK Government could end the two child cap as part of their child poverty strategy – which had been due to be published in the spring, but is now set to come in the autumn so it can be aligned with the budget.

Supporters of the move say it would be one of the most significant ways to tackle child poverty.

However Mr Swinney said UK Government welfare reforms could push more youngsters into poverty.

Mr Swinney, speaking as he campaigned in Hamilton ahead of a Holyrood by-election there next week, said he had not pressed the Prime Minister on whether his Government would end the two child cap.

But the SNP leader said: “I did ask him to take measures that would support the direction of travel of my Government, to eradicate child poverty.

“I asked him for the UK Government not to take measures that will make my task more difficult to eradicate child poverty.”

Adding that UK Government modelling had indicated welfare reforms planned by Westminster could “increase the number of children in poverty by at least 50,000”, Mr Swinney said this was “one example where the Labour Government is actually going to make my challenge even greater in eradicating child poverty”.

The First Minister added: “I don’t know what the Labour Government is going to do on the two child limit, but what I do know is they should have done this on their first day in office.

“They’ve now been in office for nearly a year and they still haven’t done it.

“They’re speculating about it, and they’re musing about it, but they are not actually doing it.

“Now my Government is taking the steps to remove the two child limit, and we will press on with that work.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: “This benefit is a devolved matter for the Scottish Government.

“The Government is determined to bring down child poverty. We’ve already expanded free breakfast clubs, introduced a cap on the cost of school uniforms, increased the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes, uprated benefits in April and supported 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.

“We will publish an ambitious child poverty strategy later this year to ensure we deliver fully-funded measures that tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty across the country.”