Emma Lewell MP: ​The two-child benefit limit is a cruel legacy of Tory-led austerity

The two-child limit is a cruel legacy of Tory-led austerity that removed support for any third or subsequent child. It caused untold misery and blighted the lives of children and their families.

This decision has divided the public, largely due to misinformation peddled by the Tories and Reform.

They have resorted to tired old arguments that try to divide the country and pit people against each other, using the language of shirkers and strivers. They argue that people will often choose not to have more children as they can’t afford to. This may be true- but what they don’t acknowledge is that people’s circumstances can and often do change. What you can or can’t afford sometimes changes.

People can unexpectedly lose their job, take on the care of a relative’s child, suffer a relationship breakdown or a bereavement, through no fault of their own.

Many people are horrified when they discover that women who have been raped have to state that their child is a result of rape – just so they can be exempt from the cap.

There are 59% of the families affected by the limit in work while 20% have at least one disabled child, it is not an unemployment benefit.

I have always been proud to live in a country where we have a social safety net that is there when people need it. I have previously needed it myself.

The Tories tore that net to shreds and, in doing so, created shameful levels of poverty. Those who were sick and disabled were cast aside. In-work poverty soared, and children bore the brunt. Scrapping the two-child limit restores some of that safety net.

No child should ever go without simply because they are part of a family with more than two children. It was one of the proudest moments of my political career to consign the two-child limit to the dustbin – right where it belongs.