![\"Two](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/240\/cpsprodpb\/726A\/production\/_130409292_gettyimages-180808255.jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to abolish the two-child limit on claiming some benefits will be challenged at a meeting of the party’s policy body this weekend.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sir Keir has faced a backlash from across his party over the issue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Labour’s National Policy Forum brings together trade union, party members and shadow cabinet representatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The meeting, held behind closed doors in Nottingham, is an important staging post in drawing up the next manifesto.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n However, policies agreed there will not automatically be included.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The content of six policy documents will be finalised and sent to the party’s annual conference in October.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The party leadership has already accepted some amendments to the draft documents – including restating the commitment to rail nationalisation and improving the provision of early years education – though without a spending commitment attached.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But a range of other proposed changes have not been agreed, and will be up for debate – including on welfare.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Both the county’s largest union, Unison and the shop workers’ union Usdaw are backing an amendment to “end the punitive features” of the benefit system, including specifically the benefits cap and the two-child limit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The cap, which came into force in 2017, restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in a family, with only a few exceptions. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Child Poverty Action Group estimates removing the limit would cost \u00a31.3bn a year but would lift 250,000 children out of poverty overnight. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sir Keir told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg the policy would not change under a Labour government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Although he did not give a reason during the interview, members of his shadow cabinet said it was because this would constitute an unfunded spending commitment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sir Keir referenced the backlash to his interview during an event with former Labour leader Sir Tony Blair on Tuesday, saying there was a row ongoing within the party about “tough choices”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “We have to take the tough decisions,” he said, adding that the experience of former PM Liz Truss’s premiership showed “if you make unfunded commitments then the economy is damaged and working people pay the price”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n