Business of the House

Liz Saville Roberts Excerpts

Thursday 11th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that issue, and recognise that his constituents who have been affected will have gone through a great deal of stress in trying to deal with it. I will ask colleagues in the Ministry of Defence to reach out to him, in the hope that these matters can be resolved as soon as possible.

[Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC)]

May I, too, welcome the new Leader of the House to his place?

The Trussell Trust’s “Hunger in Wales” report, which was published this week, shows that families with three or more children are far more likely to be forced to turn to food banks. The two-child limit is at the root of this injustice. It deliberately punishes children because of the number of brothers and sisters they have, and it is driving thousands of families into needless hardship. Will Labour in Westminster and Labour in Cardiff work together to grant debates in Government time on the urgent need for this impoverishing policy to be scrapped?

[Sir Alan Campbell]

The right hon. Lady knows that we are already taking action to help working parents. For example, free breakfast clubs will put £450 in the pockets of working parents. We have doubled the amount of free childcare for eligible working parents, we are expanding free school meals and we are extending the household support fund. I mentioned earlier in my remarks the holiday activities and food programmes. We are doing a great deal.

I know that there are discussions and debates about what other action can be taken. The Government have a child poverty taskforce, which reports from time to time and will be reporting soon, regardless of whether it has something to say about this issue. I have no doubt that these will be hot topics in the run-up to the Budget, and there will be ample time to debate them.