Labour MPs back gambling tax to fight child poverty
The UK's Betting and Gaming Council has said raising taxes on the industry could see billions wiped off the economy, and thousands of job losses.
Rachel Reeves has come under pressure from her own party, including former prime minister Gordon Brown, to scrap the two-child benefit cap when she sets out her Budget on 26 November.
The campaign - which has the backing of 101 Labour MPs - says a levy on gambling could raise £3bn which could lift half a million children out of poverty.
Nearly a quarter of Labour MPs have signed a petition urging the chancellor to hike taxes on gambling companies and use the money to lift benefit restrictions on families with more than two children.
Writing on the Politics Home website, head of the council Grainne Hurst said large tax rises would "drive customers towards the unsafe, unregulated black market where there are no safer gambling standards, no age verification, and no tax receipts for the exchequer".
Almost immediately after winning the 2024 general election, the Labour government faced calls from its own MPs to lift the cap, which restricts child tax credit and universal credit (UC) to the first two children in most households.
At the time, the government argued it did not have enough money to remove the cap but set up the Child Poverty Taskforce to consider measures to alleviate child poverty.
The taskforce had been due to produce its conclusions in the spring, but publication has been delayed.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has strongly opposed lifting the cap arguing that taxpayers "many of whom are struggling to raise their own children or choosing not to have them in the first place" should not have to "fund unlimited child support for others".
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