Oral Answers to Questions

Lorraine Beavers Excerpts

Wednesday 4th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Anna McMorrin]

This Labour Government have presided over the largest devolution settlement since records began—a settlement that has been used to provide £337 million of support to farmers right across Wales. I wonder whether the hon. Lady remembers that not only did the Welsh Conservatives votes against that support, but they introduced a motion to scrap the Welsh Government’s sustainable farming scheme. I thought that the Welsh Conservative slogan was “farming needs a friend”, but that does not sound very friendly to me.

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

5. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle child poverty in Wales.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Anna McMorrin)]

Too many children are held back by the scourge of poverty, wilfully created by the Conservative party. Our new child poverty strategy will lift more than half a million children out of poverty by 2030 across the UK, delivering the largest expected reduction since records began. Removing the two-child limit will benefit thousands of children in Wales.

[Lorraine Beavers]

Our UK Labour Government’s decision to scrap the wicked Conservative two-child cap will benefit 1,700 children in my constituency, and 69,000 children in Wales. Does the Secretary of State agree with me that the Conservative and Reform desire to reintroduce the cap is unjustifiably cruel and will drag children back into poverty?

[Anna McMorrin]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. It has and always will be children who pay the price for cruel policies, like those introduced under the Tories. I am proud that, as a Labour Government rooted in the values of fairness, we have scrapped the two-child limit, benefiting 69,000 children in Wales, and giving children their future back and hope for a better life. It is a surprise to no one that the Conservatives and Reform would reintroduce the cap and yet again plunge more children into poverty at a single stroke. Remember, their decision was never about work or saving money—