Oliver Coppard has said the UK needs a "fundamentally different approach" to tackling child poverty after the House of Commons voted down an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
The South Yorkshire Mayor spoke to The Star's Harry Harrison about whether the cap should have been scrapped and what he was doing locally to combat the issue.
The South Yorkshire Mayor spoke to The Star's Harry Harrison about whether the cap should have been scrapped and what he was doing locally to combat the issue.
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00:00What are your thoughts on the two child benefit cap that is causing debate in Parliament and within the Labour Party?
00:07As I said a moment ago in there, look, I am really pleased we are having a debate as a country about child poverty
00:12because for 14 years, frankly, we haven't had enough of a debate about child poverty.
00:17Look, people have different views about the two child cap and ultimately we all want to address child poverty.
00:23That's why we've invested in South Yorkshire £2.2 million in this scheme
00:27because we know that it's fundamentally important.
00:30But what we need actually is a long-term plan to address not just the consequences of child poverty
00:36but the causes of child poverty and that's going to take more than two weeks.
00:40The Labour government have been in office for just a couple of weeks now.
00:43I think we've got to give them a bit of time, a bit of space to understand what the challenges look like,
00:47understand what the finances look like and then develop that long-term plan
00:50that allows us to actually fundamentally change how those systems and those outcomes work.
00:55Was there a topic of conversation when you visited Downing Street yesterday?
00:58I was down talking to the policy team, I was talking to them about some of the challenges we face specifically in South Yorkshire.
01:04I was actually talking about things like public transport, I was talking about the airport,
01:07I was talking about the opportunities of South Yorkshire when it comes to things like advanced manufacturing,
01:11small modular nuclear reactors, I was talking about energy, hydrogen, you name it
01:15and we were talking about what we could do together.
01:17But we will talk about those things with the government from here on
01:20because we're now having much better conversations with this government.
01:23I've seen more of this government in the last two weeks than I saw of the last government in two years.
01:27So it's a great time to be a mayor and hopefully we'll be able to, with the government,
01:31address a number of these challenges that we face and grab some of the opportunities that we've got as well.
01:35Just to wrap up then, do you think they should scrap the two-by-child benefit cap?
01:38I think they should come up with a fundamentally different approach to child poverty.
01:43Is that a yes?
01:44That is what they have committed to do.
01:46What the Labour government said before they were elected was these are the things that we think we can do
01:50and these are the things that we want to do longer term.
01:53And I think, as they have said, they've got to do those things they promised the country first and foremost.
01:57They've got to understand what the finances look like longer term
02:00and then come up with those longer term strategies for absolutely really important things like child poverty.
02:05But it's been two weeks so let's give them a bit of time and space
02:08and let them come up with those strategies and we will support them all the way.
02:11Thanks Oliver.
02:12Thank you.