Political View: Hope for children living in poverty

This resolves the Council to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Prime Minister indicating that Peterborough City Council strongly believe the two-child limit to benefit payments should be scrapped.

The motion further resolved that the Council Leader should write a further letter to both of Peterborough’s MPs, asking them to commit their public support to the campaign to end the two-child limit for benefit payments.

The policy to cap benefit payments was first introduced in 2017 by the then Conservative Government, and there was some hope that the new Labour Government would “scrap the cap” after winning the General Election in July.

But that hope quickly vanished when the proposed amendment to the King’s Speech was voted down.

A number of Labour MPs who voted for this amendment even lost the whip (suspended from the party), further emphasizing how unrecognizable the Labour party has become.

The motion at the council was carried with 26 votes in favour, one vote against, and 22 abstentions, with most of the abstentions coming from the Labour Group of councillors, who had earlier abstained on another motion in favour of reinstating the Winter Fuel Payment.

Bringing the motion, I said “I am one of eight siblings, big family, second generation immigrant and I know how vital it is to have access to that additional bit of income when you are struggling to make ends meet.”

I went on to say that this policy was heavily objected to by all opposition parties when it first came into being, and I’m now hoping that colleagues of other political parties will now stand by what they campaigned on not too long ago in opposing the two- child benefits cap.

Cllr Nicola Day (Greens) said “I’m really pleased that Cllr Ali has brought this motion to Council today. During the General Election campaign the Green Party were clear, we wanted to scrap the two-child benefit cap. The benefit of this policy, as Cllr Imtiaz Ali has alluded to, is that it will help families in need, but also that money generally gets spent in the local economy, helping make communities more sustainable. Members we urge you to support this very important motion.”

The motion was enthusiastically supported by the Liberal Democrats and the Peterborough First Group, with both leaders speaking in favour.

The Conservative Group had an open vote on the motion and the support was mixed.

Labour, however, doubled down with their abstentions and refused to collectively get behind a policy that experts insist could end child poverty for around 300,000 children overnight.

Charity Save the Children has suggested the introduction of a system modelled on the pensions triple lock. This would guarantee that benefits are increased each year in line with whichever is highest out of inflation and average earnings.

We believe that the government should take decisive action to decrease the number of children living in poverty.