RACHEL REEVES: ‘We’re scrapping two-child profit restrict – however our work can not cease right here’

Chancellor Rachel Reeves writes for The Mirror as MPs prepare to vote today on the November Budget measure of scrapping the Tory-era two-child benefit limit

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I believe that every child born in this country deserves a fair chance to build a life. The chance to get a good education, a decent home, and a guaranteed meal on the table every morning and night.

It is because of my determination to build a stronger, fairer country that at last year’s Budget, I announced the removal of the two-child cap.

The previous government’s decision to keep that cap stripped food, heating, and clothes from hundreds of thousands of children. It pushed more families into hardship and deepened the hardship faced by households already struggling to get by. And it introduced the vile rape clause into our welfare system.

I am proud to have been the Labour Chancellor that removed that cap and, alongside the roll out of free breakfast clubs and free school meals for those with parents on Universal Credit, we are lifting more than half a million children out of poverty by 2030.

That’s half a million children who will have a better start in life. The chance to go to school without the fear, uncertainty, and untold damage poverty causes. Last month, I welcomed some of those children and women’s campaigners to Downing Street.

I heard first-hand their relief and determination and listened to stories of resilience in the face of years of uncertainty. That day will stay with me, as will the words of the brave and inspiring parents and young people I met.

Today Parliament votes to deliver for those families. It marks an important moment: another step towards dismantling a policy that has harmed too many for too long. I know what choice I will be making tonight when I vote, and it will be for the others – the Conservatives and Reform – to explain theirs.

But at the same time, I know that our work cannot stop here. We must keep building a country where every child has a fair start in life, and where every parent is treated with dignity, respect, and the support they deserve. That’s why I entered politics. It’s why I entered government. And it’s what I am determined to deliver.