Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill

Baroness Antrobus Excerpts

2nd reading & Committee negatived & 3rd reading
Thursday 12th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Antrobus (Lab) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, I thank you for the opportunity to make my maiden speech in this important debate on this universal credit Bill and the removal of the two-child benefit limit. This matter is personal to me. When I was 11 years old, state help in the form of child benefit became incredibly important to my single-parent household after my parents separated. My weekly trek to the post office to collect it—in cash, of course, in those days—helped us through a difficult period. Quite simply, it put food on our table. Mine was a middle-class family, and those who rely on support such as universal credit are not a static group, as has been said. Circumstances change: people face bereavement, job loss, or, as in my case, family breakdown. At moments of crisis, that support can be essential.

In fact, both my parents worked in this place as law reporters before the Law Lords moved to the Supreme Court. At no time did anybody imagine I would end up on these Benches. That I have joined the Labour Benches is probably less of a surprise. I have a proud heritage of Labour councillors from my grandparents’ generation, including the chair of Newton-le-Willows District Council, then part of Lancashire: my great uncle, Joe Noon. He taught me to play dominoes and to respect my Labour heritage, and he succeeded in both.

I also give heartfelt thanks to all the staff of the House, the clerks, officials, security and catering staff, and especially the doorkeepers, whose quiet professionalism sustains the dignity and daily functioning of this institution. I also thank Black Rod for his warm welcome and Garter for his guidance. I am deeply grateful to my noble friends Lady Royall of Blaisdon and Lord Coaker for introducing me, and to my noble friends Lady Smith of Basildon and Lord Kennedy of Southwark, not only for their generosity in time of support but for the confidence they placed in me.

I come to this House with a background that spans practice and theory, service and scholarship. For 20 years, I served in the Royal Air Force, including operational tours in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and in the Royal Navy. Those experiences shaped how I understand conflict—not as an abstract concept, but as something that has lifelong and often multigenerational impacts, both on combatants and civilians. Those conflicts still haunt me in many ways, but they also strengthen my determination to engage with politics in relation to defence and security. I wanted to walk towards that fight, not away from it, including standing as a candidate for the Labour Party in the 2015 general election, after I left the Air Force.

After 2015, I turned to academic research. I completed a doctorate examining the politics of air power between the wars in Whitehall. Some of the men who shaped the early Royal Air Force sat on these Benches. I studied their papers in the archives in Victoria Tower. I never imagined that I might one day follow them into the Chamber.

Indeed, 100 years ago, just this Tuesday, Lord Thomson of Cardington, the first Labour Secretary of State for Air and a subject of my research, spoke in an air policy debate in this House. With striking prescience, he warned that, should another European war occur, Britain’s ports and industrial centres would be exposed to devastating attack from the air and that the RAF would be central to national defence. Lord Thomson was tragically killed in the R101 airship disaster on its maiden flight in 1930. I hope that is not an omen for my maiden outing. However, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography described him as a

“a clear and vigorous speaker, and his cheerfulness and good temper gained him many friends in the house”.

That seems an excellent example for me to at least aspire to follow.

My subsequent academic work has focused on contemporary warfare. I am co-director of the Freeman Air and Space Institute at King’s College London. I have written on many subjects, including organisational culture, air power, missile defence and deterrence in this increasingly dangerous and divided world. I commend my noble friend Lady Carberry on her speech in the International Women’s Day debate, when she highlighted continuing toxic behaviours in the Armed Forces—an issue that I have not and will not shy away from raising.

I began by explaining why the Bill has a personal resonance for me. It matters so much more for the 450,000 children it will lift out of poverty. I saw the impact of financial hardship on children while volunteering in food banks for four years.

To finish, some might wonder why a defence and security academic would choose this debate for her maiden speech. Yet the connection is clear: as we have seen time and again, global conflict and instability directly affect the cost of living. Defence, security and economic well-being are deeply intertwined. Britain’s ability to contribute to a more stable world depends on the credibility of our Armed Forces and the deterrence they provide. We are all affected by defence and security.

Your Lordships will have different perspectives and backgrounds from me. I am looking forward to working with and learning from you.