Labour Should Be Ashamed Of Their Record On Child Poverty

This morning's Journal carried the shameful news that there are 73,000 children in the North East classed as being in severe poverty. That is 14% of the children in the North East, compared to a national average of 13%. Nationwide, 1.7 million children are regarded as being in severe poverty - this number actually increased by 260,000 before the recession.

The is something about which the Government should be quite ashamed. I was brought up to believe that a Labour Government would simply not allow 1.7 million children to live under poverty. That the Government has allowed this to happen really is a damning indictment.

As Fergus Drake, from Save The Children, has suggested:

"It’s shocking that at a time when the country was experiencing unprecedented levels of wealth, the number of children living in severe poverty – we’re talking about children going without a winter coat, a bed and other day-to-day essentials – actually increased."

It is shocking that one of the richest countries in the world still has such a large number of children living in extreme poverty. That is why we need action to tackle both poverty and the causes of poverty. To quote Lloyd George, one of the greatest Prime Ministers our country has ever had:

"I cannot help hoping and believing that before this generation has passed away, we shall have advanced a great step towards that good time, when poverty, and the wretchedness and human degradation which always follows in its camp, will be as remote to the people of this country as the wolves which once infested its forests."