Child poverty will be a test of Labour’s fiscal prudence
Its MPs, members and voters will want rapid action on a totemic issue
For a taste of the pressures that Labour will almost certainly soon be grappling with, watch a recent interview with Sir Keir Starmer on Sky News, a broadcaster. Pushed on how he would help families struggling with rising taxes and high energy bills, the Labour leader asked voters to trust his instincts: “It’s about who do you have in your mind’s eye?” The interviewer moved swiftly onto child poverty: could Sir Keir pledge to remove the two-child limit, which means families on benefits get no extra support beyond their second child? “I’m not going to make promises that I can’t keep,” he said.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Expectation management”
Britain June 22nd 2024
- Britain’s Conservatives rule the Thames Estuary. Not for long
- What taxes might Labour raise?
- Child poverty will be a test of Labour’s fiscal prudence
- Climate change casts a shadow over Britain’s biggest food export
- Jeremy Corbyn wants more nice things, fewer nasty ones
- The silence of the bedpans
- Britain’s Conservatives are losing as they governed. Meekly
From the June 22nd 2024 edition
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