Budget creating ‘missing children’ for parents who can’t afford more, Tories say

The Tories said decisions by Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in the Budget were leading to “missing children” in families, which shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said was a “personal tragedy” for parents.

The shadow minister said that with the slew of increased taxes levied by Ms Reeves in last week’s Budget, that “if they could, Labour would tax the air that we breathe”.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the previous Conservative government had punished families by having another child when it introduced the two-child benefit cap.

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“How is that fair? How is that right?” he said.

However Ms Coutinho said it was Labour’s economic policies that were deterring parents.

Speaking on the third day of the Budget debate in the House of Commons, she said: “They should talk to the many couples who have put off having children, or stopped at one or two because they cannot afford it. The younger brothers and sisters who simply won’t be born.

“Those missing children are a personal tragedy for every couple that is having to make that choice. But there will be more of those decisions because they are loading more and most costs and taxes onto hard-working families.”

Mr Miliband pointed to his Government’s scrapping of the two-child cap as being transformative for living standards, taking hundreds of thousands out of poverty.

More than 60 per cent of those affected by the cap are in work, the former Labour leader told the Commons.

He said: “More than three primary school classes each day being pushed into poverty, part of a wider picture – according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 7.1 million low-income households, one in four across the UK, have gone without essentials in the last six months, in one of the richest countries in the world.

“That’s why we’ve acted on the two-child limit – two million children helped and 450,000 fewer children in poverty by the end of the Parliament.”

Ms Coutinho had listed a litany of failings by the Government which she said had cost the public more.

She said: “They come up with a package that costs the exchequer more, cuts bills by less, and does nothing to cut energy bills for struggling businesses.

“Food bills up, rents are up, costs of holidays are up, energy bills up, cost after cost after cost because of their policies, and they want a round of applause for moving a fraction of those costs off of someone’s energy bill and straight onto their tax bill.”

She added: “That’s before we get to tax. Taxes on student loans, taxes on incomes, taxes on saving, taxes on housing, taxes on driving, taxes on pensions, even taxes on taxis.”

Ms Coutinho said freezing income tax thresholds means workers on £35,000 will lose £1,000 to tax by 2030.

She disputed whether the Government’s announcement that it would drop a green policy on energy bills would save consumers £150 a year.

She told MPs it would instead be loaded onto people’s tax payments.

She went on to tell MPs that the UK had “significantly” higher inflation, she claimed because the Government had “chosen” to make energy and food more expensive.

Mr Miliband said he “fully” supported the Chancellor’s Budget strategy because it was a “fair Budget”.

He said: “Yes, it did raise taxes on those with expensive homes, a policy I advocated (for) 10 years ago.

“It did raise taxes on the gambling companies and it did raise taxes on landlords – they should read the Budget red book – part of a fair Budget.”