Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill

Lord John of Southwark Excerpts

Thursday 12th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord John of Southwark (Lab)]

My Lords, as an old-timer in this place, I congratulate my noble friends Lady Antrobus and Lord Walker, and the noble Baroness, Lady Teather, on their brilliant, inspiring and moving maiden speeches.

A Labour Government are about nothing if they are not about reducing poverty and inequality in our society: breaking down the barriers that separate rich and poor and opening opportunities to all, whatever our background. That is why I am so pleased to be speaking in this debate and in support of the Bill, which sees the Labour Government removing the two-child limit on universal credit. I am pleased that it is just one part of the Government’s comprehensive child poverty strategy, which aims to lift 550,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament.

The noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, said there was a fundamental question in this debate. I say the fundamental question is why we have so many children living in poverty in this country. It is shocking that in 2026, in the world’s sixth-largest economy, around 4.5 million children live in relative poverty. It is even more shocking to consider than in 2010, at the time of the last Labour Government, that number was 2.3 million, having fallen from 4 million in 1997—figures I took from a paper prepared by the noble Baroness, Lady Teather. Our own national history shows us that child poverty can be tackled in a meaningful way if the Government of the day are willing to act. Those who oppose the Bill today are on the wrong side of history.

However, even if the Government’s objectives in this Bill and other measures are achieved, we must acknowledge that we will still have a long way to go. The scale of the challenge now makes the task of acting all the more urgent and necessary. A family of four, two adults and two children, living in relative poverty, is, according to statistics I have read, getting by on no more than about £400 a week. That is £400 to pay for heating, electricity, travel, food, clothing and all the costs that any family incurs before you consider anything that might be considered a treat. I need hardly remind noble Lords that that is a figure which is little more than the daily allowance which each one of us is entitled to receive for one day in this House. As others have said, we know that the costs of child poverty do not end when a child reaches the age of 18. They can blight an entire life, with a child growing up likely to earn less, work less and suffer greater ill-health if their life started in poverty.

When I was a local authority leader, I introduced two measures in particular aimed at tackling child poverty and the barriers to health for young people: free healthy school meals for all primary school children and free swim-and-gym use for all residents. As well as giving that hand-up to young people in my borough, we sought to grow our economy to lift even more people out of poverty. That is also the mission of this Labour Government. Today, though, we are talking about that all-important task that government at all levels faces of putting a supportive arm around those most in need. The people this Bill will help are those who need that supportive arm. They are not the feckless or work-shy, as some might claim. As we have heard, 60% of those families who will be supported are already in work, but just struggling to get by.

As the third child in my family, I am not sure how I would have felt if I had known that the state and the Government did not value me in the same way as my siblings; but this is the position we have put too many children in over the last decade. We live in challenging and uncertain times, particularly for children and young people who see a future marked by increased costs for educational opportunities and a significantly changing work environment with the revolution of AI—before we even get to thinking about their security at home and in this country. The mark of any society must be the way in which it looks after its most vulnerable. We rightly protect our older residents. At the moment, we protect some children, but now is the time for us to show that we care about every child who lives in poverty.