Child Poverty Strategy

Chris Bloore Excerpts

Monday 8th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bloore (Redditch) (Lab)]

Before I came to this place, I assumed it was a shared fundamental principle that all hon. Members wanted to ensure that today’s children had more than they had. The Conservatives do not want to talk about the 900,000 children they plunged into poverty. I commend the Secretary of State for her strategy that champions the life chances of children in Redditch, rather doing what the Conservatives did: using them as cheap, dehumanising political slogans for their own ends.

[Bridget Phillipson]

My hon. Friend is right that too often children have been used as pawns in a political game, using political dividing lines, where the evidence simply does not back up what the Conservative party says. Children in poverty and their families do not lack ambition or aspiration. Those families want the best for their children and they want better life changes than they enjoyed themselves. This Labour Government will ensure that children in Redditch, and across our country, get those opportunities.