Two-child benefit cap: Keir Starmer should learn from SNP's success in turning Tory policy into a genuine issue of principle – Euan McColm

Labour needs to burnish its economic credentials, but also show how it would do things differently to the Conservatives

A common flaw with politicians on the left is their failure to recognise the electorate is rarely fired-up by radical proposals. During the years when Jeremy Corbyn led Labour, his allies in the party convinced themselves voters were ready for his brand of revolutionary socialism, even as polls and election results told them a different story.

And when humiliating defeat came in the 2019 general election, those Corbynistas could be heard complaining their party had not gone far enough left. All but the most blindly loyal could see this was nonsense: who sincerely thinks voters went with the Tories because Labour wasn’t offering a fully unreconstructed socialist ideology?

In fact, the ‘small c’ conservative nature of voters has always been problematic for the Labour party, which has often had to reign in the left in order to seal the deal with the public come election time. To the rootin’ tootin’, true believin’ old-school leftie, this compromise with reality has always been a betrayal of principle. To the pragmatist, it has been a necessary accommodation if power is to be achieved.

Even Labour’s pragmatists are now struggling to explain their party’s position on the two-kid cap on child benefits. Sir Keir Starmer doubtless thought his announcement that Labour had no plans to scrap the Tory-implemented limit on the number of children for whom parents are entitled to receive supporting benefits would help assuage enduring concerns that his party is reckless on the economy.

Instead, it appears a missed opportunity to underline a significant point of difference between Labour and the Tories. The current Tory government is disdained by voters for the self-interest of its elected members. This being so, Starmer has plenty of room – and ample political capital – to announce an end to child benefit restrictions.

Labour’s support for this unpopular policy is, I think, especially problematic in Scotland, where the SNP has implemented a benefit payment of £25 a week for every child in a qualifying household. A number of Scottish Labour politicians have spoken up against Starmer’s position, but the damage is done. These Labour MSPs sound like they’re making excuses. This is because they are.

Speaking after Starmer confirmed Labour’s continuing support for the two-child benefit limit, Scottish party chief Anas Sarwar said he understood Starmer’s “frustration”. The Labour leader was looking at the economic situation he hopes to inherit and weighing up how quickly he could do the things he wanted to. Well, good luck getting that message across, lads.

There is little room for nuance around this particular issue. The SNP has been hugely successful in selling the idea that it acts as a protector against the worst excesses of Tory policies. The limit on child-benefit payments is one such policy that the nationalists have turned into a genuine issue of principle.

Labour is quite right to see its reputation on the economy – deserved or not – as a weakness and it is quite right to take steps to address this. But the party must also outline how it would do things differently. Sir Keir Starmer’s support for the child benefit cap is a mistake.