Labour has pledged to scrap a cap on welfare payments - despite not knowing how much it would cost to do so.

Debbie Abrahams, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said a Labour government would look at how to abolish the benefits cap which limits certain welfare payments for households to £20,000 outside London and £23,000 inside the capital.

However, while she insisted getting rid of the cap, which applies to approximately 116,000 households, would not cost an “astronomical” sum she admitted Labour had not actually costed the proposal.

Her comments come after the High Court declared on Thursday that the benefits cap unlawfully discriminated against single parents with children under the age of two.

Appearing on the BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Ms Abrahams was asked whether Labour planned to scrap the cap as part of its wider bid to bring about the end of austerity.