UK

Starmer faces challenge on 2-child benefit cap at Labour Conference

2nd September 2024on Starmer faces challenge on 2-child benefit cap at Labour Conference

“Opposition is needed to these reactionary, unpopular policies of the Keir Starmer government on all fronts.”

By Matt Willgress, Labour Outlook

Left-wing groups such as the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, Momentum and Labour Assembly Against Austerity – plus campaigning organisations such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Labour & Palestine – are circulating model motions for Labour Party Conference 2024, which will highlight opposition to some of Keir Starmer’s Government’s most unpopular policy stances.

Chief amongst these will be the refusal to scrap the two-child benefit cap, moves to cut Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners, the continual refusal to support the public ownership of water which is so desperately needed, and the disgraceful continuation of arms sales to Israel as it continues its illegal, genocidal war in Israel.

Opposition is needed to these reactionary, unpopular policies of the Keir Starmer government on all fronts – within and beyond the trade union and labour movement. These model motions help to provide an alternative policy framework that would put people, peace and planet first; opposing racism, austerity and war.

Model contemporary motions for Labour Party Conference 2024

END THE TWO-CHILD LIMIT ON BENEFITS

Conference notes:

1. The Guardian reported on 20 August that Rachel Reeves will not use the autumn budget to scrap the two-child limit, indicating a deeply misguided austerity budget.
2. IFS Director Paul Johnson’s Times article on 22 July notes removing the two-child limit would reduce relative child poverty by approximately 500,000.
3. The election of a Labour government on 4/5 July after 14 years of Tory austerity represents a once in a generation opportunity to address child poverty – a critical component of Labour’s Five Missions.
4. The two-child limit on child tax credits and Universal Credit is a major driver of child poverty.
5. 1.5m children live in families affected by the policy, with minority-ethnic families and single-parent families disproportionately affected.
6. Abolishing the limit would cost approximately £1.3bn pa, but the Women’s Budget Group estimates that lifting 250,000 children out of poverty could save roughly £2.3bn in societal costs. Keeping the limit is a false economy.
7. Widespread support across the labour movement to scrap the limit, including former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Scottish Labour.

Conference believes

1. Labour cannot achieve its objectives without scrapping the two-child limit, which would, as the End Poverty Commission suggests, be the most cost-effective way of reducing child poverty.
2. It’s immoral to treat some children as less deserving than others because of the circumstances of their birth.

Conference calls upon the Labour government to abolish the two-child limit as soon as possible as an urgent priority.

UPHOLD INTERNATIONAL LAW FOR PALESTINIANS

Conference notes:

● On 12 July, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, said “Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse in Gaza… civilians are being pushed into ever deeper circles of hell.”

● On 19 July, the International Court of Justice ruled Israel to be unlawfully occupying Palestinian land in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. It demanded Israel withdraws immediately, dismantles illegal settlements and pays reparations. It confirmed Israel is guilty of violating Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid.

● The ICJ’s January finding that South Africa’s claims concerning the right of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide – and related prohibited acts identified in the Genocide Convention – are plausible.

Conference welcomes the decisions of the Labour government to restore UNRWA funding and abandon Tory attempts to block the International Criminal Court from holding Israeli leaders accountable for crimes against Palestinians.

Conference believes Britain has a moral and legal obligation not to assist violations of international law. We must commit to the application of international law, including abiding by rulings and judgements of the ICJ and ICC.

Conference believes the new Government should:

● Support an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

● Impose a full arms embargo until Israel complies with international law.

● End trade with illegal settlements and all other trade that aids or assists Israel in maintaining its illegal occupation.

Supported by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Labour and Palestine

END THE SEWAGE SCANDAL – BRING WATER COMPANIES UNDER PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

Conference notes that

1. On 11 July 2024, Ofwat announced an average increase of water bills by 21%.
2. On 6 August 2024, Ofwat announced £168m combined fines for water companies guilty of sewage spills.    
3. Sewage spills in England’s waterways and seas more than doubled in 2023 from 2022.
4. Recent citizen testing of rivers found that 75% of rivers in Britain are in poor ecological health.
5. Sewage spills are a consequence of significant under-investment in our Victorian sewage infrastructure.
6. Between privatisation in 1989 and 2023, water companies accrued £60.3bn debts while paying out £53bn in dividends.  

Conference believes that

1. Cleaning up our waterways and seas is crucial for tackling the climate and nature crisis.
2. Profiteering by private companies has created a sewage crisis.
3. Bill payers should not be forced to shoulder the burden of irresponsible under-investment in the sewage system.
4. Water companies should be run to provide services to people, not create profits for shareholders.

Conference calls on the Government to

1. Take the water companies back into public ownership, ensuring that water bills are held down while profits are re-invested in upgrading the sewage system.

FIGHTING RACISM AND THE FAR RIGHT

Conference notes:

• The July/August wave of riots across Britain in which mobs of thugs mounted attacks, including on mosques, asylum seekers’ accommodation, ethnic minority businesses, Muslims, people of colour and police officers;
• mobs were mobilised through channels promoting racism, Islamophobia and anti-migrant bigotry; and
• violence was whipped up by key figures with fascist and extreme right connections, and the mobilisations were afforded legitimacy by key political figures on the far right.

Conference further notes the growing support for the far right in Britain and that:

• Reform UK secured the third highest vote at the July general election, with 4.1 million votes (14.3% UK vote share); and
• the mobilisations had significant backing – YouGov polling in early August reported that 42% considered the ‘protests’ ‘justified’ and 12% considered the ‘unrest at the protests’ ‘justified’.

Conference, aware of such high levels of support for the far right, for racist mobilisations and for violence, is concerned that this wave of racist riots may be just the first such outbreak.

Conference believes our Party should respond to this dangerous development by adopting policies to protect targeted communities and to combat the bigotry being used to justify the attacks. Such policies should include:

• more support (both political and material) for Black and Muslim people to lead community and trade union responses to the appalling violence; and

• clear communications by our Labour Government to challenge the racist, Islamophobic and anti-migrant bigotry being promoted by the media and politicians.

MASS COUNCIL HOUSING PROGRAMME

Conference notes Angela Rayner’s statement that delivery of “affordable” and social homes is her number one priority. Conference also notes concerns expressed across the housing sector about the limitations of the housing reform proposed in the King’s Speech. The National Housing Federation commented that building 1.5 million homes over the next Parliament will not be possible through planning reform alone but must be part of “a nationally coordinated and fully funded long-term plan for housing which places social housing at its core.”

Conference notes the report “Securing the Future of Council Housing,” published July 10th by twenty of England’s largest council landlords, calling for emergency funding. It warns that, “unless something is done soon, most council landlords will struggle to maintain their existing homes adequately, let alone build new homes for social rent.”

Therefore, to improve the quality of existing homes and ensure delivery of new social homes at the scale needed, conference calls upon the government to:

• Grant Fund building/acquisition of 150,000 social rent homes a year, including100,000 council homes;
• Invest in Direct Labour Organisations with well paid, unionised jobs and apprenticeships to deliver this;
• End Right to Buy to stop the loss of homes;
• Fund councils for the full cost of temporary accommodation;
• Review council housing ‘debt’ to fund housing revenue accounts sufficiently to improve the standard of council housing;
• Provide the emergency funding called for by the councils;
• End so-called ‘affordable rent’ and above inflation rent increases.

LONG COVID: INCREASE SUPPORT TO SUFFERERS AND INVESTMENT IN RESEARCH

Conference notes a review paper on long Covid by the Universities of Oxford, Leeds and Arizona, published in August 2024 in the Lancet, reported that long Covid now affects nearly 2% of the UK population, with 71% of long Covid sufferers having the condition for more than a year. Strikingly, the rate of long Covid in the most deprived fifth of the UK population (3.2%) is more than twice as high as that in the least deprived fifth (1.5%).

Furthermore, another recent study by the Universities of Birmingham and Keele of more than 9,000 people, who were in work before the pandemic, has found that people with long Covid are at three times higher risk of leaving employment compared to those without Covid symptoms.

Conference calls upon our Labour Government to:

1) guarantee sufficient funds for research both into identifying the complex causes of long Covid and its effective treatment;

2) ensure that people with long Covid receive benefits to which they are entitled; and

3) introduce legislation requiring employers to provide support for their employees with long Covid and other serious post-viral conditions, as this will benefit both employees and employers alike.

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• Rules and deadlines for Contemporary Motions for 2024 can be found here. If you wish to submit a motion on behalf of your organisation please do this before 5pm, Thursday 12 September