Sir Keir Starmer has strongly hinted the two-child benefit cap will be scrapped at the budget after the Chancellor did the same. On Monday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves also signaled she will lift the cap, which currently means families cannot claim child benefits for more than their first two children.

Asked if he would be getting rid of the cap, the prime minister told ITV: “We won’t have to wait much longer, but I wouldn’t be telling you that we’re going to drive down child poverty if I wasn’t clear that we will be taking a number of measures in order to do so.”

Speaking to Sky News on Monday, former Labour PM and Chancellor Gordon Brown, who has long campaigned to get it lifted, said: ‘I am confident that the two-child rule will be addressed. We’re waiting for Rachel Reeves’s budget, which I think will mention this.’

Lifting it will cost £2.8bn, something ministers have had to grapple with as they try to plug a growing economic black hole.