Farage
and Reform would end two-child benefit cap – report
Nigel
Farage, absent from Commons for past week, also expected to promise restoring
winter fuel payment to all pensioners
PA Media
Sun 25 May
2025 04.35 BST
Nigel Farage
will commit to restoring the winter fuel payment to all pensioners and to
scrapping the two-child benefit cap, a report has suggested.
The Reform
UK leader is expected to appeal to leftwing voters with announcements in a
speech next week, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
The
newspaper said Farage would describe Keir Starmer as “one of the most
unpatriotic prime ministers in our history and this past week has been evidence
of that”, in his first speech since Reform made large gains in the local
elections.
Reform UK is
riding high after its victories in town halls and the Runcorn and Helsby
byelection. Farage, the MP for Clacton, spent last week on holiday while the
House of Commons was sitting.
While MPs
have left Westminster for recess, he is expected to return to the political
arena and say: “The prime minister is out of touch with working people, he
doesn’t understand what they want and how they feel about the big issues facing
Britain.
“It’s going
to be these very same working people that will vote Reform at the next election
and kick Labour out of government.”
A Reform
source told the newspaper: “We’re against the two-child cap and we’d go further
on winter fuel by bringing the payment back for everyone.
“That’s
already outflanking Labour.”
This week at
prime minister’s questions, Starmer signalled he wanted to restore the winter
fuel payment to more pensioners, which is likely to take place at the budget in
the autumn.
The payment
was previously made to all pensioners, but Labour reduced it to only those
receiving pension credit in one of its early acts in government.
Ministers
are planning to restore the payment to all but the wealthiest pensioners, the
Sunday Times reported.
Civil
servants have warned that any changes are very unlikely to be made before the
winter due to ageing computer systems, the newspaper said.
Elsewhere,
the government’s action plan to tackle child poverty – a document likely to
contain proposals to scrap the two-child benefit cap – has been delayed until
the autumn.
The plan is
likely to be aligned with the budget so it can be fully costed.
The Observer
newspaper reported Starmer has privately backed plans to scrap the cap, and
made it clear he wants to drive down child poverty.
The
government is facing pressure from its own backbenchers to eliminate the cap,
all while the threat of a rebellion over a wide-ranging package of welfare
reforms looms.
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