If you're serious about reducing child poverty, abolish the 2-child cap

Swinney appeals to Chancellor to scrap unfair benefit limit which is punishing larger families

- PAUL HUTCHEON, ANDREW QUINN

JOHN Swinney has urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to consign the "cruel" two-child benefit cap to history in her Budget today.

The SNP First Minister yesterday made a lastditch plea for the Labour Government to end a policy campaigners say fuels child poverty rates.

He told the Record: "If the Labour Party is at all serious about reducing and eradicating child poverty, the first thing that the Chancellor announces when she stands up in the House of Commons today should be to abolish the two-child cap. The time to act is now Scotland's children cannot wait. The longer the Labour Party delays making the right decision, the more children will be forced into poverty as a result of this obscene policy." Reeves will deliver the first Labour Budget in 14 years after Keir Starmer's stunning general election win in July.

She is expected to announce a raft of tax rises in a bid to fund a big increase in NHS spending and call time on austerity.

Fuel duty for motorists and national insurance contributions for businesses are set to rise, while tax on inheritance and capital gains is also in line for an increase.

Swinney, whose government will announce its own draft budget in December, wants the cash raised to end the benefits cap.

Introduced by the Tories, the cap limits some meanstested benefits and forces rape victims to fill out a form if they want payments for a third child.