A former Labour leader has called on Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child benefit cap to lift hundreds of thousands of young people out of poverty.

Neil Kinnock said the government should introduce a wealth tax on the country’s richest people to help pay for it.

His comments come just two weeks after another ex-Labour leader, Gordon Brown, also called for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.

The controversial policy, which was introduced by the last Tory government, prevents families on Universal Credit from receiving payments for more than their first two children.

Official data shows nearly 1.7 million young people live in households hit by the cap – an increase of 37,000 in the past 12 months.

Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Kinnock – who led Labour to defeat in the 1987

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