{"id":432753,"date":"2026-02-18T18:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432753\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T18:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:53:07","slug":"reform-uk-would-restore-two-child-benefit-cap-jenrick-says-in-policy-u-turn-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432753\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK would restore two-child benefit cap, Jenrick says in policy U-turn | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reform UK would restore the two-child benefit cap<\/a> in full, Robert Jenrick has announced, in a major U-turn for the party that critics said would plunge hundreds of thousands of children into poverty.<\/p>\n

In his first speech as Reform\u2019s Treasury spokesperson, Jenrick said the party had changed tack since Nigel Farage last year said he would scrap the two-child limit<\/a> and suggested his party wanted to go \u201cmuch further to encourage people to have children\u201d.<\/p>\n

As part of a full-frontal attack on benefits, Jenrick also said the Motability scheme, which enables disabled people to lease a new car, scooter or powered wheelchair to help them be independent, would be reformed to \u201cend abuse\u201d where \u201cexpensive cars are handed out for conditions like tennis elbow and paid for by working people who can\u2019t afford those cars themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jenrick also said only British nationals would be able to claim benefits under a Reform UK<\/a> government, and people claiming benefits for \u201cmild anxiety, depression, and similar conditions\u201d would be stopped. Those with mental health issues would have to have a clinical diagnosis \u201cto weed out those who are choosing a life on benefits\u201d.<\/p>\n

During his speech in the City of London, Jenrick appeared to indicate he had played a part in the shift in policy, stating: \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as Reform\u2019s shadow chancellor, I\u2019m ending it. A Reform government will restore the [two-child benefit] cap in full.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what a Reform government would do to help the 4.5 million children living in poverty, Jenrick said the party wanted to ensure \u201cthat people can have kids\u201d, but \u201cwe can\u2019t just do that by spending more and more on benefits\u201d. He added: \u201cSomeone has to instil some realism into this business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to the announcement, Keir Starmer called the move \u201cshameful\u201d. Writing on social media, the prime minister said: \u201cI\u2019m incredibly proud that this government has scrapped the cruel two-child limit. Reform wants to push hundreds of thousands of children into poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the U-turn after the press conference, Farage, the Reform UK leader, said he had only wanted to lift the two-child cap for working British families<\/a>, but his attempts at being \u201cpro-family\u201d had \u201cfailed\u201d and resulted in his being labelled a socialist.<\/p>\n

Robert Jenrick\u2019s stance appeared at odds with statements previously made by Reform UK\u2019s leader, Nigel Farage. Photograph: Sean Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

However, in a move to allay market fears, Jenrick appeared to soften the party\u2019s stance on its major financial institutions. He said the independence of the Bank of England<\/a> would remain and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) would not be abolished.<\/p>\n

Jenrick\u2019s stance appeared at odds with previous statements from Farage, who has been calling for politicians to have greater influence on the central bank, which was made independent in 1997 by the then chancellor, Gordon Brown. Farage has also suggested he would replace its governor<\/a>, Andrew Bailey, and impose his own choice if he were to become prime minister, and said he was giving \u201cserious thought\u201d to scrapping the OBR.<\/p>\n

At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Farage said he \u201cdidn\u2019t like banks\u201d and would scrap the interest payments lenders receive through the BoE\u2019s quantitative easing programme. In November, he and his deputy, Richard Tice, made a U-turn on a plan to dole out \u00a390bn in tax cuts, which the party had promised in its 2024 election manifesto.<\/p>\n

Jenrick said the party was promising \u201cfiscal stability\u201d combined with \u201cradical reform\u201d, and under a Reform government the Bank of England<\/a> would be stripped of any role in moving the UK towards a sustainable future and \u201cdistractions which have been loaded on to it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Efforts to move towards net zero had become a \u201cdistraction\u201d for the Bank, he said, and he would change the body by paying high wages to \u201csuper forecasters\u201d who \u201cmost accurately model the impact of Treasury decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

But while Jenrick \u2013 who only left the Conservative frontbench<\/a> last month \u2013 accused the OBR of overestimating the benefits of low-skilled migration, he said Reform UK was \u201chappy to have its homework marked\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe OBR is far from perfect, but the impetus for its creation was a desire to instil fiscal discipline and that is something we wholeheartedly endorse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Treasury minister, Dan Tomlinson, accused Jenrick of \u201ctrying to pull the wool over people\u2019s eyes\u201d and said Reform had made billions of pounds in unfunded spending commitments.<\/p>\n

The shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, said Reform UK was \u201cnot serious\u201d on the economy. \u201cJenrick claims Reform are happy to have their homework marked, yet they still haven\u2019t explained the \u00a310.5bn black hole in their pubs plan, and when challenged on it, they said they were \u2018not interested in the numbers\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform UK would restore the two-child benefit cap in full, Robert Jenrick has announced, in a major U-turn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-432753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}