Child Poverty in the UK (Target for Reduction) Bill

Debate between Dan Jarvis and Susan Elan Jones

2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 3rd February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

My hon. Friend speaks with huge knowledge, experience and authority, and she is absolutely right. Today’s debate represents an opportunity for all of us in this place to send out a clear statement of intent that our goal is that no child should have to grow up in poverty, and that we will hold ourselves accountable and measure progress through the target that we seek to set.

Why is it so urgent that we set a target? The Resolution Foundation highlights falling living standards among the least well-off, as a combination of rising inflation, welfare cuts and lower pay increases hits. It warns that for the poorest, this Parliament will be the worst for living standards since records began and the worst for inequality since the 1980s.

[Susan Elan Jones (Clwyd South) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that a growing problem in our country is poverty among children whose parents are working? That is a real fear for many people.

[Dan Jarvis]

I do agree, and my hon. Friend has anticipated some of the remarks that I will come to shortly. I am grateful to her for the intervention.

Having referred to the Resolution Foundation report, I would also like briefly to mention a landmark report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. It highlights what it describes as the “stark inequalities” between children of different backgrounds and the effect of poverty in worsening children’s health.