Does Keir Starmer ‘agree with Reform’? Readers discuss

Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments

This reader says it is ‘unfair to frame support for the two-child benefit cap as callous’

Neil and Robert (MetroTalk, Wed) are unfair to frame support for the two-child benefit cap as callous.

Of course we want to support children but we need to be realistic – where do you think all this tax revenue for a ballooning welfare state is going to come from when this government is destroying the private sector?

Nigel Farage is proposing to reintroduce the cap to fund a cut in VAT for the hospitality sector, which is currently dwindling. We need a good private sector to support a growing public sector. At least Farage has a plan, unlike this government. Denise, London

Is child benefit means-tested?

The problem is that child benefit is not means-tested and the government has just opened the floodgates and increased the burden on overstretched taxpayers, some of whom may be pushed into the very poverty people want more money from others to avoid getting into.

Also, Robert saying ‘the poor cannot afford to feed/clothe their children’ is yet another overgeneralised and highly emotive statement, which implies that anyone with more than two children is by definition incapable of sensible choices.

Sometimes the issue is poor or deliberate parental decisions, sometimes it can just be unfortunate circumstances and yes there are genuine needs for some – and these should be addressed and helped – however opening the floodgates to anyone without assessment and no matter their choices, is an unreasonable burden on society.
Paul, London

‘When it comes to children, if people can’t afford to feed them then they shouldn’t breed them’, says reader

As a taxpayer, I totally disagree with the idea we must pay to ‘feed/clothe’ children because their parents are too poor and can’t afford to do it. When it comes to children, if people can’t afford to feed them then they shouldn’t breed them.

The government’s decision to lift the two-child benefit cap will simply allow people to breed for benefits – and that
will cost the country a fortune. Leslie, Stourbridge

Reader says Starmer ‘agrees with Reform’s arguments’

Critics suggest that any talk of challenging Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of the Labour Party is only playing into the hands of Reform.

They are wrong. Starmer plays into the hands of Reform every day by agreeing with their arguments, copying their hardline anti-immigration policies and appeasing their extremist beliefs.

Appeasing extremists only legitimises and emboldens them, making them stronger and stronger. Rob Slater, Norfolk

Have things ‘got worse’ since the election?

The government says the British people voted for change in 2024 and that it is working night and day to deliver that change. Admittedly 18 months is not a long time but we have seen rising food and energy prices not to mention council tax and water rates, employment costs (causing more unemployment), punitive taxes on ordinary working people and businesses while increasing benefits to people who choose not to work, minimal growth, rising crime (ie shoplifting) and record numbers of illegal immigrants.

Things were not that great or rosy before the election but things have got a whole lot worse since then which explains, if the polls are to be believed, why people have completely lost faith and trust and desperately looking for alternatives.

Just attacking Reform and blaming the Conservatives will not wash any more and they need to look at and address their own lamentable performance. Jeremy, London

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