Welsh Labour MP who’s an expert on child poverty defends voting to keep the two child benefit cap
![](https://nation.cymru/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Torsten-Bell.jpg)
Martin Shipton
Child poverty expert turned Welsh Labour MP Torsten Bell has defended his decision to vote against scrapping the two child benefit cap, despite arguing in favour of doing so for years.
Until being elected to Parliament as the MP for Swansea West at the general election, Mr Bell was chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, a think tank that specialises in the study of poverty and how to relieve it.
He recently published a book called Great Britain? How We Get Our Future Back in which he condemns the two child benefit cap as a measure which has plunged many more children into poverty.
‘Appalling policy’
He states: “The goal of this appalling policy was to ensure that ‘families on benefits face the same financial choices about having children as families who are supporting themselves solely through work’ – implicitly meaning fewer births in bigger, poorer families.
“There’s little evidence it has had that effect … The limit must be abolished. Far from making families have fewer children, it has just made them far poorer. The costs involved in reinstating the lost benefit would be £2.5bn in 2024/25, but that is small compared with the damage being done: abolition of the limit would overnight lift half a million children out of poverty.”
Yet on Tuesday evening Mr Bell voted against an SNP amendment in the House of Commons that would have scrapped the two child cap.
Seven Labour MPs who voted for the amendment, including former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, have had the party whip withdrawn for six months.
Gwyn Williams, who was Mr Bell’s Plaid Cymru opponent at the general election, posted a comment to X that said: “Really disappointed that our new MP voted to keep the two child benefit cap despite writing an article in the Guardian earlier this year calling it immoral.”
Understandably lots of debate about child poverty this morning – something we as a country should spend much more time focusing on
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) July 24, 2024
Since being elected to Parliament, Mr Bell has been appointed as an unpaid aide to Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden – a role he would have had to resign if he’d voted for the SNP amendment.
In a thread on X, Mr Bell defended his decision to back the government’s line, stating: “Understandably lots of debate about child poverty this morning – something we as a country should spend much more time focusing on
“The context here is the first Labour King’s Speech in 14yrs – implementing a manifesto just endorsed by the election result. No-one should be surprised that 98+% of Labour MPs voted for it/against amendments from other parties. That’s business as normal just days after an election
“More importantly we shouldn’t confuse parliamentary procedure with what actually matters – reducing child poverty, something I’ve spent my life working on – in the last Labour government (which did exactly that) and ever since.
“And the status quo is intolerable – over 4m children are now growing up in poverty, after a 700k increase under the Tories. And yes the recent rise has been dominated by children in larger families. Those numbers must come down because this is not what a decent society looks like
“Making that reduction happen was never about the chamber last night. Instead it will come through the strategy to reduce child poverty that the government is committed to. And the hard yards of making it a reality.
“A new child poverty unit is being established in the Cabinet Office and a ministerial taskforce to oversee the new strategy has been established. I’ve already spoken to both @leicesterliz [Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall] and @Alison_McGovern [Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions] about its important work.
“People are rightly impatient to see progress, but the government has to be allowed to develop and bring forward that crucial strategy. Reducing child poverty means bringing together not just social security policy, but labour market, housing and many other important areas.
“My case for optimism is that history tells us Labour governments do focus on child poverty and do deliver real change. I worked with Gordon Brown as child tax credits were rolled out and transformed lives – over half a million children were taken out of poverty.
“Plus you can already see how policies of this Labour government will make a difference. “Too many low earners not getting the hours work they want is a big feature of low income Britain today, and banning exploitative zero hour contracts will make their incomes more secure.
“As an aside, you don’t often see big changes to social security outside of fiscal events because decisions have to be made in the round (underpinned by fiscal forecasts). I spent long enough as an HMT [Treasury] civil servant to know the alternative is chaos. We’ve had quite enough of that.
“Ultimately the government, and all of us, will be judged not on votes during parliamentary game playing but on whether we deliver rising living standards and growing opportunities for the most disadvantaged in society in Swansea and across the country. Time for the hard work.”
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People all want change by yesterday. 3 weeks in and they haven’t fixed the mess the Tory party left, I mean, come on, supermajority the Tory party said would happen would mean Mr Starmer could do anything, anything at all with the flick of a pen….. or were the Tory party lying again and process to repair will take time considering the damage, acts and bills dont happen over night. we shall see. Labour must know that term 2 depends on fixing things or the Cons are back in to finish the job….. Speaking of which I had Tugendhat as… Read more »
I’m completely in agreement about the mess left by the Tories, but can we please not forget that the Tories & Lib Dems, in turn, inherited an absolute mess left by Labour in 2010. Neither main party has covered itself in glory over recent decades.
“we shall see. Labour must know that term 2 depends on fixing things or the Cons are back in to finish the job…..”
Never too early to argue, don’t vote Plaid Cymru eh.
Is this dressage or politics…too much talk of using the Whip !
The ‘Lutine Bell ‘I know, ‘Lloyd’s of London’ (insurers for a century and a half to the Atlantic Slave Trade)
Now I know where ‘Thor’s Stone’ Bell comes from, let’s hope the Ship of State does not pile up on it…
This is a predictable but poor rationalisation for inaction, Mr Bell. While the Reeves chancellory has already been marked by the perpetuation of economic and intellectual incoherence, and when children and their families are suffering (now), more nimble, moral and proactive government processes would make the difference. They would provide interim payments to those in need, no questions asked. Think emergency flood relief. Think Covid (oh, bad example). We know what the causes of poverty are (er, lack of money?). Let’s fix it now, while we await y strategaeth fawreddog (the grand strategy, drum roll). A maximum of £3.2b would… Read more »
Shouldn’t be surprised, he was gifted a safe seat and so is now owned by Starmer.
Would be good if his constituents with more than two children turned up in numbers at his next surgery.
He could suggest how hard they should work to deal with or avoid the two child cap.
Get an additional job or stop breeding while he gets on with working hard for them perhaps.
Oh yes!! Another MP who forgets his principles when power is awarded onto them.
He wrote a bloody article against this only a couple of months back in the Guardian. Astonishing!!!
1. “The other party left a financial mess” is what George Osborne said in 2010 when he introduced that act of social murder known as “austerity”
2. As Tony Benn said, if there’s money to kill people then there’s money to help people
Expert on child poverty promotes policies that increase child poverty. Wow, I guess he must really hate children. Or that the Labour Party is still irrevocably wedded to the neoliberal status quo that has failed us for many years.
This certain parachutist was ordered by Starmer to vote to keep it….
Nothing more…….
He clearly is someone who is thinks its his God given right to be an MP for a constituency he has no connection to.
Since he lacks the moral intelligence to reject parachuting, it’s no surprise to see self serving career politicking from him.
So many of you just talking politics over practicalities.
Is it not perfectly reasonable to want people to budget for a family they can afford rather than want to give carte blanche for subsidised extra kids in an overpopulated country with a housing crisis? Its not about feelgood its about cost and practicalities. I’d have loved 3 but we decided just to have two… All funded by their actual parents not others.
And yet we throw another forty odd million at the monarchy plus two new helicopters & a fleet of brand new cars when they are already one of the personally richest families in the world.
Not surprised once elected he turns back on his principals and isn’t this a case of hypocracy putting party before the needs of children living in poverty. The excuse that Reeves has said that the tories have made a mess when this is fact checked this does not show an economy in ruins but an economy which has bounced back and out of recession . The books were open to be secrutinised but Reeves and starmer is repeating a mantra that does not hold up to secrutiny. It is all a big ploy for tax hikes and pension asset grabing.… Read more »
Make your minds up!
Make a list of what is thought the ‘country’ might need to fight in a return to Grandma’s Little Wars, and all the other trades required to keep an appearance of normality…
Vic loved her facades, just keep them out of sight and stay upwind…
Von Starmer’s Labour Express will bring a ‘stay calm and carry on’ mentality until another Churchill turns up to give the Chinese a bloody nose or whatever…
Loads to look forward to…
Can we not call people like him as
Welsh MP
, he is an English MP parachuted into a safe Welsh seat.This particular move is a good example of colonialism.
This vote was a disaster for Labour. Showed its Starmers way or nothing. This parachuted in MP is useless, keep stink tanks out of parliament.
Yet another hypocritical politician, goes with Labour territory I suppose.
Maybe; but I think that Torsten Bell’s response isn’t really surprising. Labour was defeated comprehensively at the 2019 Westminster election, and even as late as May 2021 – barely more than three years ago – decisively lost the Hartlepool by-election to the Conservatives – even though Corbyn had stood down as Labour leader by then and Starmer had replaced him. Personally, I never for a moment back then thought that Labour would have any great chance of winning the next general election, even by a whisker let alone by any sort of landslide. But as it turned out, they did.… Read more »
If we’re sticking to actual facts the most recent Labour King’s Speech until this month was in October 1950.
Obviously career ambition takes priority over principles as we might expect. Voting against one’s alleged principles is an essential demonstration of loyalty on the way to climbing the greasy pole and he’s got that box ticked early.