Rachel Reeves and Nigel Farage Rachel Reeves has claimed Nigel Farage’s opposition to the lifting of the two-child benefit cap is based on skin colour. The chancellor’s punchy attack on the Reform UK leader comes as she is set to reveal new legislation to lift the Tory policy in April. It comes a year after Labour insisted on keeping it as as cost-cutting measure, and earning plenty of backlash from its own MPs in the process. Reeves told the Guardian she had delayed removing the cap, meant to help lift 550,000 children out of poverty, until the markets were stable. This U-turn is set to cost the government £3 billion a year by 2029-30. Farage told a press conference on Wednesday that his party will be voting against scrapping the cap, because he was concerned it would benefit “huge numbers of foreign-born people”. The chancellor claimed that effectively suggested some children deserved to be in poverty. She told the newspaper: “I don’t really care what colour a kid’s skin is – some deserve to be in poverty and some don’t? That makes me pretty angry. “Does Nigel Farage want to go around and say: ‘White? Yeah, you can have the money. Black? No, I’m sorry, it’s not for you.’ What sort of country does he think we are? “If you’re the mum next door who works in the NHS, has lived here all her life, her kids lived here all their life, but she was born somewhere else – we’re saying that that family deserves to grow up in poverty whereas the one next door doesn’t? That’s not the sort of country I believe in.” A Reform UK source hit back, telling HuffPost UK: “Rachel Reeves is suggesting that black people can’t be British. This is flagrant racism from the chancellor.” Farage revealed his stance on the cap when speaking to reporters on Wednesday. He claimed his previous comments about supporting an end to the cap had been misread. He said: “I was trying to be pro-family, pro-children, pro-working people who find it very, very hard to pay for childcare. It’s a disincentive for them to have children and to go to work at the same time. “I think the way this government is doing it… looking at some of the stats, it’s going to start to benefit huge numbers of foreign-born people. And that goes back to this point. “We have to prioritise British-born people, whether it’s for child benefit or whether it’s for social housing. And so I think when it comes, we will vote against it.” Prime minister Keir Starmer will be promoting Labour’s decision to lift the cap on Thursday, saying Reform and the Tories’ opposition to the U-turn “exposes the deep division and decline” they want to introduce. He is set to say: “Nigel Farage seems intent on linking arms with the Conservatives in a cruel alliance to push kids who need help back into poverty. “This child poverty pact is something that should worry us all. These aren’t numbers on a spreadsheet – these are children’s life chances at stake.” Related... Reeves Scraps The Two-Child Benefit Cap And Delights Campaigners: 'We Won!' Starmer Hopes Lifting The 2-Child Benefit Cap Will Cheer Up His Unhappy MPs. But Is It Too Late? Exclusive: Labour War Of Words As Phillipson And Powell Clash Over 2-Child Benefit Cap