It is Robert Jenrick’s big day out today. The newly-minted Reform ‘Shadow Chancellor’ is making his first speech since his appointment, with plenty of soothing words to calm the jitters of the bond markets. Sporting a snazzy pair of specs, he was, in the words of one Tory, every inch ‘reassuring Rob’. But the top newsline from his presser was his decision to kill Reform’s two-child benefit cap – Nigel Farage’s big offer to Labour voters last summer. Jenrick said:
As a signal of intent, today, Reform is changing our policy on the two-child cap for Universal Credit. The policy was well-meaning. We want to help working families have more children. But right now, we just cannot afford to do so with welfare. So it has to go.
That is a shift from last May when Farage was declaring:
We believe lifting the two child cap is the right thing to do – not because we support a benefits culture, but because we believe for lower paid workers this actually makes having children just a little bit easier for them. It’s not a silver bullet. It doesn’t solve all of those problems, but it helps them.
And of course, it was only a fortnight ago Jenrick accidentally voted in favour of scrapping the two-child benefit limit. Let’s hope that policy is all cleared up now…
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