Gordon Brown’s chilling warning on Reform in main intervention
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK will drag Britain back to the Tory poverty years, Gordon Brown warns ahead of a crunch by-election.
In an article for The Mirror, the ex-Labour PM said Keir Starmer’s mission to lift kids out of hardship is taking shape with the imminent lifting of the hated two-child benefit limit. The policy will officially be abolished in April – lifting almost half a million children out of poverty.
The flip-flopping Reform chief Mr Farage previously said he would scrap the Conservative-era policy, which charities have blamed for trapping kids in poverty. But last week alongside his new Treasury spokesman – Tory turncoat Robert Jenrick – the party said they would reinstate the policy introduced by George Osborne in full.
Mr Brown said the U-turn means Reform will “force children back into poverty” if they win power.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the move to scrap the policy, which restricts families to claiming Universal Credit beyond their first two children, at last year’s Budget. The policy impacts almost 1.7million children and the government estimates abolishing it will see around 450,000 kids lifted out of hardship by 2030.
READ MORE: Reform UK plans to push kids into poverty with two-child benefit limit U-turn
Ahead of a high-stakes by-election in Gorton and Denton on Thursday, Mr Brown highlighted that over 6,000 children in the Greater Manchester seat will benefit from scrapping the cruel measure.
The PM between 2007 and 2010 said: “When voters go to the polls in Gorton and Denton on Thursday, the fate of more than 6,000 thousand local children is in their hands. These are the boys and girls who will benefit on April 1st from the abolition of the hated two child rule.”
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He added: “This by-election offers a choice.To help children continue to escape poverty with Labour’s brilliant local candidate Angeliki Stogia or go back to the Tory poverty years with Reform.”
It comes as Labour faces a fight to hold the seat from both Reform UK and the Greens, who are pouring resources into the area in the hope of delivering a major political upset.
Labour’s candidate Ms Stogia told The Mirror: “The chance to change people’s lives for the better is my motivation to get into national politics.Through Labour’s choice to scrap the two-child cap, around 6,000 kids across Gorton and Denton will be lifted out of poverty. That means children not going to school with hungry bellies or last year’s uniform.”
She added: “That’s the difference of having Labour MPs in power, and I want to play my part. That’s why I’m urging Mancunians to reject the toxic division of Reform and back me in Thursday’s by-election.”
Earlier this week, Mr Starmer made a surprise visit to Gorton and Denoton for the first time since the by-election was triggered in January by the resignation of the former Labour MP and minister Andrew Gwynne. The PM claimed the by-election battle was a “straight fight” with Reform UK.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, he said: “This is a straight fight between Labour and Reform. Only Labour can beat Reform in this constituency and that’s because we care about bringing communities together. Because we have a candidate that’s rooted in public service, who wants to make sure every single person has a voice, up against the politics of division, which is not the politics of Manchester.”
On Monday evening legislation designed to scrap the two-child benefit limit cleared its final stages in the Commons by 361 to 84 votes – a majority of 277. No vote was recorded for Reform chief Mr Farage.
But Mr Jenrick, who accidentally voted with Labour MPs a fortnight ago to remove the policy, voted against the government’s legislation. It will now go to the House of Lords, before the policy which was introduced by the Tories in 2017, is officially axed in April.
