Keir Starmer aims to avoid backbench rebellion with child poverty taskforce

PM's speech failed to specify measures to tackle issue, angering MPs calling to scrap the two-child benefit cap

Keir Starmer sought to ward off the first rebellion of his premiership with the launch of a new cross-government taskforce to tackle child poverty, as backbench Labour MPs were preparing to support calls for the controversial two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.

Starmer's first king's speech contained no specific measures to address child poverty, angering dozens of MPs on his own benches, given many of them have constituents suffering as a result of the policy introduced by the former Conservative chancellor George Osborne.