I can’t remember when I last heard Sir Keir Starmer sounding so passionate.The prime minister’s critics regularly lambast him for what they see as robotic or emotion-free communication, but you could not accuse him of that as we spoke on a post-Budget visit to a community centre in Rugby, Warwickshire.I could see it in his eyes and hear it in his tone.”I have repeatedly said that I want my government to drive down child poverty. That is a political mission. It is a personal mission,” the PM told me.He was talking about the policy announced in the Budget to scrap the two child benefit cap, introduced under the Conservatives in 2017, meaning parents can only claim universal credit or tax credits for their first two children.It will end next April.”I don’t want hundreds of thousands of children in this country living in poverty. I think it’s abhorrent,” he said. “And I’m really proud that yesterday was the day that this government lifted half a million children out of poverty. It’s a very good thing for those children.”And yet it has taken him almost 18 months in office to make this announcement and in that year and a half he kicked seven Labour MPs out of his parliamentary party for voting for the very thing he is now so passionately endorsing.The PM’s argument has always been one of affordability.He would regularly tell me before the general election that removing the cap was something he really wanted to do …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnI can’t remember when I last heard Sir Keir Starmer sounding so passionate.The prime minister’s critics regularly lambast him for what they see as robotic or emotion-free communication, but you could not accuse him of that as we spoke on a post-Budget visit to a community centre in Rugby, Warwickshire.I could see it in his eyes and hear it in his tone.”I have repeatedly said that I want my government to drive down child poverty. That is a political mission. It is a personal mission,” the PM told me.He was talking about the policy announced in the Budget to scrap the two child benefit cap, introduced under the Conservatives in 2017, meaning parents can only claim universal credit or tax credits for their first two children.It will end next April.”I don’t want hundreds of thousands of children in this country living in poverty. I think it’s abhorrent,” he said. “And I’m really proud that yesterday was the day that this government lifted half a million children out of poverty. It’s a very good thing for those children.”And yet it has taken him almost 18 months in office to make this announcement and in that year and a half he kicked seven Labour MPs out of his parliamentary party for voting for the very thing he is now so passionately endorsing.The PM’s argument has always been one of affordability.He would regularly tell me before the general election that removing the cap was something he really wanted to do …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
