Nigel Farage Calls For Lifting Of Two-Child Benefit Cap
Reform leader Nigel Farage called for the two-child benefit cap to be lifted. (Alamy)
4 min read
Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage has called for the lifting of the two child benefit cap and transferable tax allowance for married couples.
The two-child benefit cap was introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, and prevents families from claiming benefits - including child tax credits - for more than two children.
Leading poverty charities in the UK have called for the cap to be lifted, with the End Child Poverty Coalition finding removing the cap would lift 250,000 children out of poverty.
On Tuesday morning in a speech Farage said Reform UK was now committed to lifting the cap as part of the party's commitment to prioritise families.
"We built this party around three key principles: things that we think need to be fought for and defended, things that we think most people in this country hold the dearest in their hearts - and that is, of course: family; community; and country," said Farage.
"And that is why we believe lifting the two child cap is the right thing to do - not because we support a benefits culture, but because we believe for lower paid workers this actually makes having children just a little bit easier for them.
"It's not a silver bullet. It doesn't solve all of those problems, but it helps them."
Farage, however, said the policy was aimed at British families and not people that had moved from overseas and chosen to have children in the UK.
The decision to back lifting the two-child cap comes after Labour refused to lift the cap last year, even removing the whip from a number of it's own MPs for voting against the whip and supporting lifting the cap in parliament.
This week, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson hinted the government may consider lifting the cap, telling the BBC the government's child poverty tax force was looking at the cap and "nothing is off the table".
Also in his speech, Farage said he was in favour of a transferable tax allowance for married couples as part of Reform's focus on families.
"We want to go much, much further to encourage people to have children - to make it easier for them to have children," said Farage.
"And that is why I also believe that having a transferable tax allowance between married people is the right thing to do."
Elsewhere, Farage spent a portion of his speech criticising the Conservative party, claiming "they've had a good 200 years, it is now finished" and that his party was now the official opposition.
"They are now an irrelevance in Scotland, an irrelevance in Wales, a complete irrelevance in the Red Wall where nobody will ever trust them again," said Farage.
"Now, of course, there's much talk about who the leader of the Conservative Party might be - and they change leaders pretty regularly... they have no chance of winning the next general election, none whatsoever.
"And I don't really wish to spend much more time talking about them. They did sink to fourth in the opinion polls with YouGov last year. It is over. It is done. They've had a good 200 years. It is now finished."
However, the largest portion of the speech was spent criticising Labour's record in government and prime minister Keir Starmer - claiming Starmer "doesn't believe in anything", criticising his recent deals with the EU and Mauritius with the Chagos Islands, and the prime minister's record on irregular migration.
During his speech, he also challenged the Labour leader to join him in a former mining community pub to see who connected better with the public.
"Why doesn't the Prime Minister and I go to a working man's club somewhere in the Red Wall, and we'll sit there and we'll let them ask us questions - and you can all come along and cover it live," Farage told journalists.
"So, that's my open invitation to the Prime Minister: let's go to one of the former mining communities.
"Let's go somewhere that Labour have held the seat pretty much consistently since 1918, let's whether the whether the prime minister will enjoy a few beers with the lads and do the Channel Four racing that afternoon."
