The Telegraph’s Mary Riddell and the BBC’s Nick Robinson say today that Labour is planning to drop opposition to cuts to child benefits for people earning over £50,000 a year.

David Cameron made a big deal about it at PMQs today.

Robinson writes:

To do so [reverse the cut] would cost £2.3bn. That is 23 times as much as the money which would be saved by removing winter fuel allowance from wealthier pensioners – the policy unveiled by the shadow chancellor Ed Balls earlier this week.

He then asks if Ed Miliband “will go further” tomorrow in a speech on Social Security reform.

I asked sources from Ed Miliband’s office this morning about these announcements.

I was told that their position remains the same: the party is not planning to set out a fully costed budget for 2015 yet, so they will not confirm or deny whether they will reverse a particular cut.

“There’s no new position on child benefits, I was told. But my sources were also of the view that extending child benefits to those who earn over £50k will “not be a priority” – given the cost involved.

“We will look at every cut [to spending made by the Tories] and see what our priority is,” I was told.

So what about Miliband’s speech tomorrow? It will not focus on cutting universal benefits, I was told quite firmly.

It will focus on how Labour will reinvent Social Security for a new era. More on that later tonight once the time of the embargo is passed.

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