Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage are “competing over who is nastiest” with their welfare policies, the Education Secretary has claimed.
Bridget Phillipson said that the Conservative Party and Reform UK would “plunge children into poverty” by reinstating the two-child benefit cap – which is lifted today.
The Education Secretary also claimed that Badenoch would have viewed the street she grew up in Tyne and Wear as “Benefits Street” – the jibe which the Tory leader applied to Labour’s last Budget, which scrapped the cap.
The benefit cap was introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, and restricted child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.
In November’s Budget, Rachel Reeves abolished the cap at an estimated cost of £3bn a year by 2029-30.
The move came after heavy pressure from Labour backbenchers, who also forced the Government to ditch welfare reforms last summer.
Hailing the scrapping of the cap on Monday, Sir Keir Starmer said it would pull “nearly half a million children out of poverty”.
Tories and Reform would reimpose the cap
The Tories have said they would reinstate it and use the money to spend more on defence, while Reform has also promised to reimpose it, arguing that families on benefits should have to make the same financial choices about having children as everyone else.
Writing for The i Paper (see below), Phillipson attacked the two parties for their stance by invoking Theresa May’s phrase from 2002 about the Tories being seen by some voters as the “nasty party”.
Phillipson said: “It is the landmark policy of the parties of the British right to plunge children into poverty. Two nasty parties, competing over who is nastiest in a race to the bottom.”
She went on: “Almost three-quarters of children in poverty come from working families. Families who are doing everything they can to give their children the best possible childhood, the best chance in life.”
Rachel Reeves announced the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap in her November 2025 Budget (Photo: House of Commons/Reuters)When Reeves announced the abolition of the cap in November, Badenoch called it “a Budget for Benefits Street, paid for by working people”.
Phillipson claimed that the Tory leader is “out of touch with the values of the British people”.
“I grew up on a terraced street of council houses,” she said. “One that, today, Kemi Badenoch would label ‘Benefits Street’. The children on that street were no less talented and no less ambitious than any other. I know, because I was one of them.
“In her eyes, they deserve the hunger, the cold, the humiliation – all that poverty brings – because they have the gall to be born as the third child into their family.
“It is morally repugnant and this Labour Government is proudly charting a different path.”
Responding to the lifting of the cap, the Tories, citing their own analysis, said working families were having to fund a “£6,400 benefits payday”, with the party claiming at least £1bn extra every year will flow to 186,000 workless households, with a family of two unemployed adults and three children standing to receive a £6,400 income boost.
Badenoch said: “While working people struggle with rising fuel costs and food prices, Keir Starmer is giving another handout to those on benefits.
“The Conservatives believe in fairness and that those on welfare should have to make the same choices about their family as those who aren’t.”Announcing Reform’s plan to reinstate the cap in February, Robert Jenrick, the party’s Treasury spokesman, said: “We want to help British working families to have more children. But, right now, we just cannot afford to do so with welfare.”
The Government has said it remains committed to overhauling the welfare system and curbing benefits spending, with a particular focus on young people not in education, employment or training. However, it is yet to provide detail on future cuts.
By Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary
Nine years ago today, George Osborne’s two-child limit came into effect. It went on to become the single biggest driver of rising child poverty over the last decade.
The cap condemned 300,000 children to living their formative years – years that should have been filled with learning and joy – in poverty.
It is a choice a Labour Government would never have made and today, we right the Tories’ wrong.
Hundreds of thousands of families will be better off. But more than that, hundreds of thousands of children will be given their childhood back.
Those children will do better at school – the evidence linking poverty and exam results is clear. Their chances of getting a good job will improve, and when they do, so will their chances of contributing to our society and to our economy.
Lifting this cap will improve the lives of children in every corner of the country today, and the prospects of our country tomorrow.
And yet: the Conservatives and Reform UK have said they would reinstate it. Today, it is the landmark policy of the parties of the British right to plunge children into poverty. Two nasty parties, competing over who is nastiest in a race to the bottom.
Almost three-quarters of children in poverty come from working families. Families who are doing everything they can to give their children the best possible childhood, the best chance in life.
The Leader of the Opposition’s “Benefits Street” jibes are a slap in the face to the millions of families in this country who are struggling to make ends meet. It is those families who Badenoch vilifies in the name of political point-scoring.
But Badenoch’s cruelty is also revealing. It shows how out of touch her party is with the everyday realities faced by families across the country. Families who work hard, but struggle to make ends meet. Families who do their bit, but still face impossible decisions at the end of the month. Families who do all they can to support their children, but see their opportunities narrowing by the day.
Crucially, she is out of touch with the values of the British people, who don’t want children’s future determined by their background.
I grew up on a terraced street of council houses. One that, today, Kemi Badenoch would label “Benefits Street”. The children on that street were no less talented and no less ambitious than any other. I know, because I was one of them.
One day she says she believes in freedom, in the importance of childhood. The next, that children of working families should be condemned to the life-limiting scourge of poverty.
In her eyes, they deserve the hunger, the cold, the humiliation – all that poverty brings – because they have the gall to be born as the third child into their family.
It is morally repugnant and this Labour Government is proudly charting a different path.
Because there is no greater freedom than the freedom from poverty. The ceiling on opportunity lifted. Whole worlds, whether in education, in work, or in life, brought within reach.
The lifting of the two-child cap sits at the centre of a host of steps we are taking to improve children’s life chances and make life easier for families.
Last week, the first of our new Best Start Family Hubs opened their doors, providing invaluable, free local services like breastfeeding support, stay and play, and early support for children with SEND. A big step towards repairing the damage done by austerity and the closure of Sure Start.
We have halved the cost of childcare, making high-quality early years education more accessible and affordable while providing parents with the opportunity to work more hours.
But every step of the way – whether expanding free school meals, rolling out free breakfast clubs or cutting the cost of school uniform – the Tories and Reform have stood united in opposition to Labour’s efforts to help families get on.
Their determination to reintroduce the two-child limit – and the repercussions that would have for families’ finances and children’s life chances – is not a one-off.
Today, as we deliver change, we remember politics is about choices. Labour chooses to back families, the Tories and Reform choose to insult them. We choose to put money in parents’ pockets, the Tories and Reform choose to take it away. We choose a better life for our children, the Tories and Reform choose to condemn them to poverty.
At the end of this Parliament, over half a million children will have been lifted out of poverty as a direct result of this Government’s actions – the biggest reduction in child poverty in a single Parliament. That should be a source of national pride.
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