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 I and many others joined this party and am proud to serve in a Labour government today.
Under the Conservatives, the number of children in poverty rose by 700,000 – with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family.
This Government’s Mission is to create and spread opportunity for every child and young person in our country. Living in poverty scars children’s lives and their futures.
As it was with the last Labour government, tackling child poverty is central to our plan for change. We have committed to an ambitious child poverty strategy, which we have set to work on immediately.
In addition, this Government has 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.
This Labour Government is 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.
We have already begun convening the country’s leading experts and campaigners on child poverty – and will work 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.
