Gordon Brown: Raise gambling taxes to fund abolition of benefit cap

• Gordon Brown has warned that Britain is experiencing its worst poverty in over half a century, urging Sir Keir Starmer to abolish the two-child benefit cap.
• The former prime minister proposed funding the abolition of the cap, which would cost £3.2 billion, through reforms to gambling taxes.
• Mr Brown supported a report by The Institute For Public Policy Research (IPPR) suggesting that increased gambling taxes could lift around half a million children out of poverty.
• The two-child benefit cap, introduced by George Osborne, restricts benefit claims for third or subsequent children born after April 2017.
• The Betting and Gaming Council has criticised the proposed tax increases, arguing they are “economically reckless” and could push consumers towards unregulated black markets.

IN FULL

UK hasn’t seen poverty like this for 60 years, says Gordon Brown in call to scrap two-child benefit cap