The sad truth is that, under the Conservatives, the number of children in poverty has risen by 700,000 – with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family.
I believe the Two Child Benefit Cap is wrong and I want to see it removed but the reality is that we have inherited the worst economic situation since the Second World War.
Given this reality, for a Labour Government to act fiscally responsible, some tough decisions have to be made. Nevertheless, tackling child poverty is central not just to this Labour government, but to every Labour government.
The last Labour government took over half a million children out of poverty – and lifted millions of children out of absolute poverty overall. Its commitment to ending child poverty, and its many other achievements in office are why so many of us joined this party and are proud to serve in a Labour government today.
That’s why this Government has a Mission to create and spread opportunity for every child and young person in our country. Living in poverty scars children’s lives and their futures, this Labour government will bring the change our children need.
I want to assure you that Labour have committed to an ambitious child poverty strategy, which we have set to work on immediately. This will be overseen by a new Ministerial Taskforce to drive cross-government action on child poverty, which will be co-chaired by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the Secretary of State for Education and will involve all key relevant departments and sit at the heart of how we will deliver our Opportunity Mission.
And this work will happen at the heart of government, through a new specialist Child Poverty Unit in the Cabinet Office, bringing together officials with external experts, leaving no stone unturned in Labour’s mission to improve children’s lives.
Our new strategy will build on the first mission of this government – growing the economy to improve living standards across the country and ensuring economic stability, so never again are working people paying the price for a Tory government willing to play fast and loose with the public finances.
In addition, we have laid out a series of concrete and significant actions in our manifesto to support children and families. These include free breakfast clubs in every primary school, expanding government funded childcare, cutting school uniform costs, placing Young Futures hubs in every community, renters reform to give families security and delivering our Child Health Action Plan.
We are also committed to the New Deal for Working People, ensuring that the minimum wage is a genuine living wage, and reformed employment support will mean that many more people can benefit from the dignity and purpose of employment. Alongside this, we will be reviewing Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty.
This is the change that millions of people voted for on the fourth of July, and this is the mandate that we will deliver on as a Labour government.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has already convened the country’s leading experts and campaigners on child poverty – and we look forward to working productively with them in the coming months.
Only Labour can be trusted to tackle child poverty. We’ve done it before and will do it again.