Angela Rayner 'urges Rachel Reeves to strip child benefits for middle-class families' - as pair's 'feud' continues
has encouraged Rachel Reeves to strip middle-class families of child benefits payments, it has been claimed.
The Labour Deputy Prime Minister urged the treasury to 'claw back' the benefit from families where the top earner's annual salary was somewhere between £50,000 and £80,000, The Telegraph first reported.
If taken forward, the decision would undo an announcement by the Tories in March 2024 that was predicted to save 500,000 families around £1,300 per year.
Ms Rayner's suggestion was reportedly contained in the same leaked memo, in which the Deputy PM proposed eight tax rises.
Ms Reeves faced criticism this week after details of the memo were revealed and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced an about-turn on her abolition of the universal winter fuel payment.
The memo accepted that the change to child benefit rules would be 'contentious' but added Labour could argue that the Tories had never properly funded the policy to begin with.
Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative chancellor who announced the change in 2024, urged Labour not to reverse it.
'This may look like a relatively minor budget measure but was one of the most popular things we did because it helped striving middle-class families struggling with childcare costs.
'Abandoning them would confirm that far from being a New Labour government, this is a traditional anti-aspiration Old Labour government.'
It comes as Ms Rayner called for migrant benefits to be slashed and urged Ms Reeves to make changes, it was reported yesterday, after the Deputy PM challenged the Chancellor's economic approach.
Bold proposals, outlined in the leaked memo, also suggested making it harder for immigrants to receive Universal credit.
Ms Rayner even said Labour should raise the fee migrants pay to use the NHS, in policies she and her team claimed were 'contentious' but still 'worthy of consideration'.
Under current policies, introduced under the Tories in 2015, foreigners on work visas pay to access healthcare - a fee currently set at £1,035.
The 'radical' policies further included limiting access to the state pension.
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