No 'silver bullet' to address child poverty – Keir Starmer

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said there is no quick-fix or "silver bullet" to addressing child poverty as he comes under increasing pressure to lift the two-child benefit cap.

Starmer spoke on Monday at the Farnborough Air Show as he launched a new skills programme set up by the government. At the event he was pressed by journalists as to whether the government was considering removing the cap.  

UK education secretary Bridget Phillipson told Sky News on Monday morning the government was considering removing the measure to alleviate child poverty. Her statement was the clearest indication the government would do so to date.  

Phillipson, however, said it would be "very expensive" and the government would need to "consider it as one of a number of levers in terms of how we make sure we lift children out of poverty."

When asked on Monday morning later that day, Starmer said there was no "silver bullet" to ending child poverty. 

"If there was a silver bullet, it would have been shot a very long time ago. It is a complicated set of factors that I know and I can see every day in my own constituency to do with pay, to do with benefits, to do with work, to do with housing, to do with education, to do with health," he added. 

"That is why you need a strategy to deal with it which is why we have set up a very strongly chaired body to drive forward that work... What matters is that we turn that into action and reduce child poverty which is what I am determined that we will do.” 

SNP Westminister leader Stephen Flynn has urged Scottish Labour MPs to back his amendment to the King's Speech on Tuesday, which will call for an end to the cap.

The amendment is currently backed by Plaid Cymru, Green Party, SDLP, Alliance Party, and independent MPs.

Flynn said: "The two-child cap was the Tories operating at their worst, so scrapping the cap would deliver on the promise made to the public for real change. 
 
"Every child poverty charity in Scotland and beyond recognises that this policy penalises children and keeps them rooted in poverty. We’ll vote to do the right thing by those bairns and I would encourage other Scottish MPs to do likewise."

Starmer was also questioned on the announcement that President Biden would stand down at the US election. Biden came under heavy pressure to step down after senior Democrat figures includng Barack Obama had been reported for the President to consider whether to press on and stand for re-election. 

The Prime Minister said he believed it would not have been an "easy decision” for Biden, but said that he was looking forward to "working with him for the remainder of his presidency."

He refused to endorse Kamala Harris as the Democrat nominee and said that he would work with any future US president. The news comes as Donald Trump is widely expected to win the US Presidential race and serve as leader for another four years. 

“My approach will be to respect that decision making and to be clear that we will work with whoever the American people elect into office, as you would expect, particularly given the nature of the Special Relationship between our two countries.”

A version of this story first appeared on our sister website, Politics Home.