Starmer and Farage in ‘race to the bottom' on child benefit cap, says Badenoch
Writing in the Daily Mail, the Tory leader accused Sir Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage of engaging in a 'race to the bottom' on welfare.
She said: 'Apparently, Starmer and Farage now believe in getting taxpayers – many of whom are struggling to raise their own children or choosing not to have them in the first place – to fund unlimited child support for others.
Nigel Farage has said Reform UK would abolish the two-child benefit cap (Jacob King/PA)
'That's not fair, it's not sustainable and it's not even compassionate. Welfare traps people, builds dependency and it drives up costs for everyone.'
Her comments come after Mr Farage announced his party would abolish the cap as part of a series of spending promises including reinstating the winter fuel allowance and changing rules on tax-free allowances for married couples.
At the same time, the Prime Minister said his Government was looking at 'all options' to drive down child poverty, but has not committed to getting rid of the cap.
Mrs Badenoch said both leaders' comments on the cap showed they were 'content to make promises they can't keep', arguing the Conservatives were 'going to be the party of sound money and fiscal responsibility again'.
The cap, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, prevents Universal Credit claimants from receiving additional benefits for a third or subsequent child born after April 5 2017.
Campaigners say the cap exacerbates child poverty and has had a minimal impact on birth rate or family size.
The Child Poverty Action Group has said abolishing the cap would lift 350,000 children out of poverty and mean another 700,000 were in less deep poverty.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scotsman
3 hours ago
- Scotsman
As German far-right praises Starmer, Scotland needs its own immigration system
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The Prime Minister's speech on immigration this week was as disgraceful as it was misleading. Summoning the spirit of Enoch Powell – not because they share a political philosophy, but rather because the Prime Minister mistakenly thinks it's what people want – Labour's Keir Starmer warned of Britain becoming 'an island of strangers', inviting suspicion and division at a time when, after 14 years of Conservative drift, the UK clearly needs leadership, transformation and purpose. It was a predictably tone-deaf speech that took all the wrong lessons from the English local government elections. There will be only one winner here: Nigel Farage. No wonder the member for Clacton stood up in the Commons chamber this week and said he 'very much enjoyed' the Prime Minister's speech and that Starmer had 'learnt a great deal' from Reform UK. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Immigration is not a problem to be solved, but a solution to be embraced. That is not to say we cannot hear, listen to and understand differing views on immigration – a democratic society demands that we must, as differing views are a fact of political life. But for a Labour Prime Minister to pick up where the most migrant hostile Conservative government finished, and continue to present migrants as burdens or threats, is as politically bankrupt as it economically illiterate. Keir Starmer announced new measures to reduce immigration earlier this week (Picture: Ian Vogler/WPA pool) | Getty Images Critical issue for Scotland It was the strongest sign yet that the government has given up on its mission of achieving economic growth – something that no administration can hope to achieve with an immigration system designed to keep foreigners at bay, or outside the EU for that matter. For Scotland in particular, this is a critical issue for our economic prosperity and the resilience of our public services – particularly our NHS, social care, agriculture and hospitality industries. Our population is ageing faster than the UK average. In rural areas in particular, our problem isn't one of immigration but of emigration; communities are shrinking, with local services and local businesses under strain because of depopulation. Key industries are in a constant battle to find the workers they need. This is not a theoretical future risk; it is a current and urgent crisis across Scotland, and one that was only made worse by the loss of freedom of movement within the EU. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Yet despite these obvious challenges in Scotland, UK immigration policy, whether set by a red or blue administration, has nothing positive on offer. In fact, it is evidently about to get worse, as the system becomes more hostile and remains rigidly centralised and wholly unresponsive to Scotland's needs. Devolving immigration Any Scottish MP worth their salt understands that it is their job to stand up for Scotland's interests at Westminster. That is why I have brought forward legislation to devolve power over immigration from Westminster to Edinburgh – a rational, practical proposal that would give Scotland's parliament the powers to tailor immigration rules in line with our national needs and circumstances. This is not a radical departure from international norms: Canada and Australia already grant significant immigration powers at the state and provincial level, to best respond to local economic and labour needs. With the devolution of immigration law, Scotland could introduce targeted schemes to support rural repopulation and address labour shortages. We could reopen Scotland to the European talent we have lost and build a system rooted in dignity, cementing our reputation as a country that welcomes people, not simply content to be the northern province of Fortress Britannia. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Such policies can work, and we know they would make a materially positive impact to our country. When we still enjoyed freedom of movement, communities across Scotland – particularly rural Scotland – were strengthened and made more resilient by the arrival of other Europeans from across our continent. They opened businesses, staffed care homes, and brought life to towns and villages facing decline. The farming industry benefited from seasonal workers whose absence is now acutely felt. The NHS, and particularly social care, has long relied on staff from overseas – a reliance that will only grow in the years ahead. German nationalists approve Scotland, like the rest of the UK, has benefited enormously from immigration. That is not something we should mutter about apologetically but embrace as one of our key successes. Migrants are our friends, neighbours, colleagues – and, increasingly, our lifeline. They do not make us a country of strangers. They make our country stronger. That is something I still believe in, even if Keir Starmer no longer does. The PM needs to reflect on the fact that he was called out for his comments by former child refugee Lord Alf Dubs, and praised by the Putin-sympathising German nationalists, Alternative für Deutschland. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad That is not the company I would want to keep. The PM's grotesque attempt to weaponise migrants for political gain is destined to fail. Nobody who recalls the Keir Starmer of just a few years ago – pro-EU, pro-freedom of movement and pro-immigration – will be convinced by his attempt to imitate Nigel Farage. Driving voters towards Farage The Prime Minister is free to risk and ruin his own reputation as he so wishes – he has been thoroughly exposed as willing to say whatever he thinks voters want to hear – but he has no mandate to sign Scotland up to a future of economic decline that is hostile to those who do us the honour of building a life here. It is not strangers Scotland should fear, but stagnation in our economy and living standards. That is what's driving hordes of angry voters into the hands of Nigel Farage – a man who offers no solution to the challenges we face. We must make the case for immigration with clarity and with courage – not only as an economic necessity, but as a reflection of the kind of country we aspire to be. If Keir Starmer will not lead on this issue, then I know that John Swinney will.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE X Factor's Wagner opens up about 'feud' with Louis Walsh, his pet lion and getting death threats from PUTIN - 15 years after he and his bongos became a national treasure
It's been 15 years since Wagner burst onto screens in series seven of The X Factor. The moustachioed Brazilian with his distinctive thick accent, long locks that would whip around around the stage, and a passion for percussion, became an instant fan favourite, with millions tuning in every week to see what he would do next. Love him or hate him, no one could turn away when he belted out his rendition of She Bangs / Love Shack, but sadly his X Factor journey came to an end when he was booted out in the quarter-finals in a double elimination with Katie Waissel. While it's been more than a decade since he starred on the show, Wagner's legacy lives on and the Mail's offices are abuzz when he comes in. One of my colleagues is keen to get a picture because she dressed up as him for a fancy dress party. Another wants a video message because she used to have Wagner as her Facebook profile photo. Indeed, I too am intrigued to meet the man behind the bongos. And I can now say that in real life, he is exactly the same eccentric and chaotic star the nation fell in love with on screen. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. He's an hour late because 'the train doors closed in my face!' he exclaims at me. He's upset about his journey too, because there was nowhere to sit on the train. He's also spent the morning on the phone with his bank disputing an electricity bill charge. So it takes some time to settle him down. Once inside the studio, he's more than happy to reminisce about his glory days on The X Factor but admits he hasn't kept in touch with any of his fellow contestants, which included the likes of Katie Waissel, Cher Lloyd and One Direction. 'We were not friends before we were on The X Factor,' Wagner, 69, muses. 'We became acquaintances, perhaps friends, but we have different lives and everybody followed their own path.' Surely though he's had some contact with Louis Walsh - his mentor on the show - who famously had a fiery relationship with the star. Initially Louis dumped Wagner at Judges' Houses; then brought him back as a wildcard; refused to learn how to pronounce his name; then voted against him in the sing-off, ultimately sending him home. 'The judges were actors', Wagner insists. 'Everything is planned in advance and my contact with Louis was just the for cameras. 'So yeah, I never had much contact with Louis, but I must say he was pleasant every time I met him.' Wagner is happy to reminisce about his glory days on The X Factor but admits he hasn't kept in touch with any of his fellow contestants, which included the likes of One Direction That must explain, I muse, why Louis kept mispronouncing his name, saying it like Wag-nah rather than the correct Vawg-ner. Not the case, Wagner reveals. 'It was a joke that Louis agreed with me!' he explains. 'He said "I'm gonna call you Wagner all the time and you're gonna say Louis, my name is Vawg-ner." 'That was fun and it was Louis's idea. It was smart.' Another story that created headlines when he was on the show, was the news that he once owned a pet lion. It was said that Wagner, who now lives in West Midlands, owned the creature back in his native Brazil. A throwback picture of the star wearing swimming trunks while holding the big cat's tail on a beach went viral. Now, however, Wagner admits the lion wasn't actually his. 'It belonged to a lady friend,' he explains. 'But now I don't have any pride in it anymore. 'Years later I came to the conclusion that for my lady friend to have the lion cub that meant that poachers must have killed his mother. 'So before I used to be proud but now I'm not proud anymore.' With the topic of poachers threatening to bring down the atmosphere, I'm keen to move subject of conversation onto something more light-hearted. So, I ask, whatever happened to his OnlyFans business? Wagner sent the internet into meltdown in 2023 when he announced he would be joining the X-rated subscription site and charging £8 a month for racy content with 'nothing off limits'. Yet after shocking fans with a near nude snap to promote his work, 'Daddy Wagner' as he called himself in his bio, shut down the account after just four stunts. 'That was just a publicity stunt,' he admits. 'I was never fully naked there. I always had my bits covered.' Wagner sent the internet into meltdown in 2023 when he announced he would be joining the X-rated subscription site and charging £8 a month for racy content with 'nothing off limits'. Another publicity stunt, he confesses, was his claims that he feared being assassinated by the Kremlin. In 2023 he shared his fears he will be assassinated after getting death threats from people confusing him with the Russian mercenary group with the same name. Wagner said ever since the Wagner mercenary group launched its assault on Moscow, he had received messages threatening to cut of his testicles and those of 'his troops'. He also said he thought the Kremlin was 'hacking' his website and mobile phone as he had noticed 'changes' on his devices. But the singer added he was 'ready for them' and he would use his 'black belt in karate' to 'take on and defeat any Russian assassins'. 'It was a silly thing... a joke', he reveals. 'Putin knows very well damn well who who the real Wagner was... that was only gibberish.' For now, Wagner is writing a sitcom about a Brazilian man who accidentally books himself in to see a prostitute rather than a physiotherapist - with chaos ensuing. He hasn't abandoned music, however, and is the frontman of Kings With Wings: The Wagner Rock Band - a name he says is inspired by his love of birdwatching. 'I got lots of bookings but I felt so awkward singing She Bangs, because my God, that is a stupid song but people love it,' he explains. 'I sang She Bangs wherever I went. But with the band I'm having my own repertoire. I'm singing great songs, Jumping Jack Flash, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley... 'And there's nothing like singing with musicians instead of singing to backing tracks.' So while The X Factor itself may now be a distant memory, for Wagner and his bongos, his legacy lives on.
New Statesman
5 hours ago
- New Statesman
The British left is coming for the Government
Photo byWhisper it as yet, but after five long years of confusion and disarray, the British left is rallying. Local political organisations are coalescing, from Chiswick to Liverpool to Newcastle. The Green Party leadership contest has become a straight fight between an energetic, 'eco-populist' left candidate, and the party's more cautious establishment. The prize is clear: local elections due next May across England's major cities, including London councils. After that, who knows. Could Labour's urban fiefdoms fall victim to the rout northern councils saw in the local elections last month? It won't be easy. Bitterly, almost viscerally unpopular as Labour may be, it is the self-styled insurgents of Nigel Farage's Reform that have been the overwhelming beneficiaries of the Starmer slump. Farage himself has been happy to pilfer from the left – a long-time Thatcherite now turned improbable friend of the welfare state. But the Reform squeeze isn't only on Starmer's Labour, who, after talking up their fiscal discipline at huge political cost are now u-turning on its most unpopular consequences. It's also a squeeze on all those on England's left who fondly imagine that the popularity of their traditional policies, from nationalisation to more welfare spending, is enough to win them votes. Instead, they're now seeing those same demands nabbed by opportunists from the radical right, precisely because they are popular. A new programme for 21st-century England will be needed, focused relentlessly on the everyday cost of living and wealth inequality. But new organisations are also needed. Peter Mandelson once spoke of a Labour left buried in a 'sealed tomb' by New Labour. This proved to be optimistic, as the Corbyn surge of the 2010s proved. And fearful of a second Corbyn-style resurrection, Starmer's operation has driven a stake through the left's heart, stuffed its mouth with garlic, placed it in a lead-lined coffin, sealed the tomb, and stationed a grim-faced 24-hour armed guard outside, gripping their pistols and blazing torches. The monster will not now escape. As a political force, the Labour left is finished. The tactic of entryism – entering the Labour party and changing it – is finished too. Instead, the party's steely-eyed Van Helsings should have been looking elsewhere. From the shadows, far away from Westminster, a terrifying new apparition is approaching. Disguised by the size of Labour's majority, the 2024 election saw the non-Labour left win its biggest parliamentary representation in British history, on its biggest vote ever. Four million voters returned nine left MPs, spread between the Greens and five independents, including Jeremy Corbyn in Islington. At the height of its success, in the late 1940s, the Communist Party won two MPs and 94,000 votes. Since the foundation of the Labour Party itself, the non-Labour left has never seen anything like this support. Against a seemingly monolithic Labour majority, this may have mattered little. Britain's perverse voting system found Keir Starmer foisted into Downing Street with a landslide majority, but with half a million fewer votes than Jeremy Corbyn lost by in 2019. As a result, the party has been left with more marginal seats than ever before in its history. Fifty-one of its seats were won with a margin of less than 5 per cent. Accurately described after the election by polling expert James Kaganasooriam as a 'sandcastle majority', the turning political tide has now washed away Labour's 2024 support. The main beneficiaries, for now, are Reform, whose spectacular success in the local government elections saw them win control of previously Labour councils from Durham to Derbyshire. Its one-time heartlands in the North of England were already riddled and on the verge collapse, with Boris Johnson's demolition of this so-called 'Red Wall' in 2019 having already delivered the fatal blow. Johnson's failure to hold his new coalition together, coupled with Liz Truss' calamitous 44 days in office, saw many of Johnson's wins fall back into Labour hands five years later – but on the most tenuous and temporary basis. Demographic change, and a great, decades-long shift in the economy from manufacturing to services, has created new heartlands for the party, concentrated in inner cities and major urban areas across the country: a mix of underpaid, insecure younger workers, often with university degrees; more settled ethnic minority communities; and a solid layer of public sector employees, many of whom are now at or approaching retirement. Generally socially liberal, 15 years of persistent economic failure since the financial crisis have shoved this base increasingly to the economic left. And 25 years of failed military interventions have created a deep cynicism about Britain's role abroad – crystallised in the distance between Starmer's government and its voters on Israel. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Even before entering Downing Street, the horrors of Gaza, and Britain's complicity in them, had been a powerful solvent on Labour's new base of support. That undermined Labour's vote in 2024, and resulted in the arrival of the 'Gaza independents', the four pro-Palestinian MPs elected in the strongly Muslim areas of Leicester, Blackburn, Dewsbury and Birmingham. Combined with Labour's blunders and cruelties in office, from the Winter Fuel Payment to disability allowance cuts, the party's support has been hollowed out. Its voters won't vote, its activists aren't active, and the party's once-fearsome ground game is crumbling. There was a taste of what could be to come in Haringey last month when a Green Party candidate, Rurairdh Paton, was elected by a landslide in a solidly Labour and solidly working class ward. Tellingly, local campaigners report that Labour grew so desperate for campaigners that local councillors from Folkestone in Kent were drafted in to door-knock. It's the better-established Greens who can seize this opportunity in Labour strongholds. Zack Polanski's leadership bid, and the newly formed internal faction, Greens Organise, have already identified the potential for a breakthrough. Polling shows the Green's support to be younger, and poorer, than the other national parties. These are not the middle-class do-gooders of legend. The broader left, outside the Greens, needs to recognise how the world has changed. Rumours that Jeremy Corbyn was about to set up a new party have swirled around him since his expulsion from Labour, almost five years ago. National negotiations to establish a new party, organised between different chunks of the post-Corbyn left, have come to little. A combination of political caution, and disagreements over a new party's potential direction and leadership have so far scuppered agreement. Perhaps wisely, Corbyn himself has been wary of jumping the gun. The history of left-wing breakaways from Labour, from the Independent Labour Party in the 1930s, to Scottish Labour in the 1970s, to Respect in the 2000s, has not been a happy one. Only George Galloway has, to date, made anything like a success of it, and then only via an increasingly eccentric one-man triangulation between the economic left and 'socially conservative' right. Whatever else he may be, Jeremy Corbyn is not George Galloway. And declaring a new party will not magically reproduce his 2015 breakthrough. Cooperation across the non-Labour left is the order of the day. On the ground, this cooperation is already starting to happen. In Lancashire, Greens have banded together with the newly formed Preston Independents to become the official opposition on the County Council. Greens and Independents are working closely in Islington. Local organisations are being pulled together by prominent independent left candidates, like former mayor Jamie Driscoll in Tyneside, Faiza Shaheen in Chingford, and former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein, who came second place in Keir Starmer's own constituency of Holborn and St Pancras at the 2024 election. Green Party members in all those constituencies are working alongside the independent left. Local alliances can become a national force. Across the channel, France's New Popular Front, an alliance between forces of the traditional left, the left populist France Insoumise, and the French Greens, was pulled together in weeks on a radical programme that catapulted the alliance to top of the polls in the snap elections – and pushed Marine Le Pen's National Rally to third place. France Insoumise MP Danielle Obono spoke at the London Green Party's conference last month on the practical experience of unity. There's a desire to learn from what worked – and what did not. The next general election isn't due until 2029. But a string of local council victories next year would pave the way for an unprecedented challenge to Labour – not from the right, as the party has always had to fight, but from its radical flank. And this new movement could take parts of Labour with them: from the tone of his Guardian op-ed on Wednesday, John McDonnell already regards his party as half-lost. Far from the coming in from the cold, what was once the Labour left has a different goal: burning the house down and building something completely new. [See also: Child poverty is rallying the Labour left] Related
