Ian Murray says the party needs to find money to end the two-child benefit cap

But the Labor leader said they had to be “credible in terms of the economy”.

His comments come as unions, party members and the shadow cabinet travel to the National Policy Forum at the East Midlands Conference Center in Nottingham to set out a policy agenda to guide their manifesto in the next general election.

CONTINUE READING: Rishi Sunak applauds Keir Starmer’s support for the two-kid line

The party has been split in recent days after Sir Keir confirmed he would not abandon the cap introduced by George Osborne.

The policy means that households claiming a child tax credit or universal tax credit are not entitled to a third or subsequent child born after April 6, 2017.

There is an exception for families where the third or subsequent child is the result of “non-consensual conception”.

However, this can only be claimed if the mother discloses her rape to the Department of Works and Pensions.

Recent research by the House of Commons Library found that more than 80,000 children in Scotland were affected and 20,000 of them were pushed into poverty.

CONTINUE READING: Two child benefit cap Scotland: ‘More than 80,000 affected’

Mr Murray told the BBC: “The bottom line is that we all agree this is a terrible policy and we all agree it affects people we should support.”

“We need to find and identify the money and do everything we can to identify the money that we can pay for it and have a plan for how to provide it.”

He added: “But we have to be credible on the economy because we can see from the events of the last few months that if you lose control of the economy, working people have to pay.”

“You need to establish a process of what your strategy for reducing child poverty should be. And every single policy will contribute to that.”

Mr Murray said Sir Keir is committed to eradicating child poverty.”

He said: “There is still a long way to go before the general elections. There is still a long way to go before we finalize and print the manifesto. And I would encourage people to wait for that to happen.”

Earlier this week Sir Keir said Labor had to make “tough decisions”.

“We keep saying collectively as a party that we have tough choices to make, and by and large everyone is saying, ‘That’s right, Keir.'”

“And then we make a difficult decision. We’ve been in a situation like this the last few days and it’s like, ‘Well, I don’t like that, can’t we just hit that? I’m sure there is another difficult decision to make.’ somewhere else we could do.’

“But we have to make the difficult decisions. This isn’t a focus group deliberation saying, ‘We want Labor to wear an economic straitjacket’, it’s about the basics.”

CONTINUE READING: Keir Stamer has been accused of “massive treachery” over the two-child benefit limit

The National Policy Forum will be held behind closed doors and is due to produce six policy documents by the end of the weekend, which will be sent to the party’s annual conference in October.

However, there is no obligation to include the final documents in the manifest.

A draft document circulated in May promised “major universal credit reform” to “combat child poverty.”

Activists and unions will reportedly seek to change that and include a commitment to end “the punitive features” of the benefit system, particularly the benefit cap and the two-child limit.