Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has refused to confirm whether the government is planning to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
On Sunday, the Observer reported that Sir Keir Starmer had privately backed abolishing the limit and requested the Treasury find the £3.5bn to do so.
The policy prevents most families from claiming means-tested benefits for any third or additional children born after April 2017.
Asked on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg if she would like to see the cap go, Rayner said: “I’m not going to speculate on what our government is going to do.”
She added that the government had established a Child Poverty Taskforce, which had been considering, among other measures, whether to remove it.
“We’re looking in the round at the challenges. That is one element,” she said.
It follows the delay of the government’s child poverty strategy, being worked on by the taskforce, which had been due for publication in the spring. The BBC has been told the strategy could be set out in the autumn.
On Tuesday, a memo from Rayner’s department was leaked to the Daily Telegraph, which appeared to urge the chancellor to “claw back” child benefit payments from higher earning families, among several other suggestions.
Asked if she backed the proposal, Rayner refused to be drawn. She told Sunday with Laura Kuessberg that ministers were “looking at child poverty” and that she supported what the government had done so far.
She was also categoric in her denial of being behind the leak, saying: “I do not leak. I think leaks are very damaging.”
It was put to Rayner that, following the leak, some in Labour had characterised her as jostling for Sir Keir Starmer’s job.
“I do not want to run for leader of the Labour Party. I rule it out,” she said, adding that being the deputy prime minister was the “honour of my life”.
She also denied that there were splits in Sir Keir’s cabinet, saying: “I can reassure you the government is solid.”
Questions around the two-child benefit cap come after the prime minister announced a U-turn on cuts to winter fuel payments, following weeks of mounting pressure.
Sir Keir said the policy would be changed in the autumn Budget, adding that ministers would only “make decisions we can afford”.
Asked if any change would arrive before this winter, Rayner said it would be for Rachel Reeves to outline at the “next fiscal event”.
