Child Poverty Strategy

Jess Brown-Fuller Excerpts

Monday 8th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, who has long campaigned on the important relationship between poverty and health inequalities. Through the development of the strategy and through the taskforce, we took evidence from experts in this area. I give her the commitment that we will continue to consider the impact on health, including health inequalities, of poverty.

We see the development and publication of the strategy as part of a long-term, 10-year strategy for lasting change. The monitoring and evaluation framework that was published alongside the strategy sets out our plans to track progress. This will include a comprehensive programme of analysis, focusing on the drivers of child poverty and on the impact of specific interventions. We will continue to publish more data so that my hon. Friend and others can continue to hold Ministers to account on the progress we want to make towards bringing down the number of children in poverty.

[Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)]

I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as chair of the all-party parliamentary group for infant feeding.

The Government’s response to the Competition and Markets Authority’s report into infant formula, which aims to give parents the confidence to choose any brand of formula regardless of price point, because they are all nutritionally equivalent, is a welcome first step as part of the child poverty strategy, but without tackling and enforcing the marketing legislation so that formula companies cannot continue to use intangible claims on their packaging, the Government’s announcement will not protect all parents. Will the Secretary of State please tell me when we can expect the legislation to be reviewed, as committed to in the Government’s announcement last week?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for the work she does in this important area. As she knows, parents will save up to £500 a year as a result of the plans we have set out for action on baby formula so that parents can make the right choices for themselves. Of course, we know that it is also important to put in place support for parents who wish to breastfeed, and that is why we have also extended and expanded the national breastfeeding helpline, which runs alongside support that will be available in Best Start family hubs to ensure that mothers have choices about the right approach for them to make. I will ensure that a Minister in the Department of Health and Social Care writes to the hon. Lady to update her on the issues she has asked about.

Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life

Jess Brown-Fuller Excerpts

Monday 7th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

My hon. Friend saw at first hand the difference that Sure Start made. Through his election to this place, a new generation of children in his constituency will once again benefit from the kind of support that was so essential, and we will support his local authority with additional funding for that. He is right to say that this is about children growing up in poverty and the wider failures in our children’s social care system. That is why I am so proud that, thanks to the actions of a Labour Government, more children will receive free school meals through the expansion of eligibility to all families in receipt of universal credit.

Alongside that, we will deliver the biggest reform in a generation to children’s social care, to make sure that families are better supported to stay together where they can, with early help and targeted intervention. Where that is not possible, we will make sure that our most vulnerable children do not see wholly inadequate and terrible placements that fail to deliver the kind of support that we would expect for our own children. That is the difference that a Labour Government will make.

[Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)]

I sincerely thank the Secretary of State for today’s announcement, recognising that one-stop shops for advice and support should be available to every parent in every community. I am sure she will know that my local authority, West Sussex county council, currently does not receive Start for Life funding, so I am excited to see how this delivers for my constituents. I chair the all-party parliamentary group on infant feeding. Can the Secretary of State confirm that Best Start centres will be firmly rooted in evidence-based feeding support to ensure that all parents, regardless of how they choose to feed their babies, can access the guidance and help that they so desperately need?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Through today’s announcement, the Department for Education will fund support in the hon. Lady’s constituency, and I am sure that will make a big difference to the people she represents. I am grateful for her work on infant feeding, and I can give her an assurance that the support put in place will be rooted in the best available evidence right across all the interventions that the Best Start family hubs will provide. If there is more information about the work of the all-party parliamentary group that she would like to share with me, I would be happy to consider it further.

Gaza: Humanitarian Situation

Jess Brown-Fuller Excerpts

Tuesday 28th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Dodds]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising the importance of the lodestar of the two-state solution, which we must always aim at. Israelis and Palestinians rightly deserve a state of security, and the sovereignty that he is committed to. On the role of UNRWA, we have had many discussions with its leadership and other international partners. Ultimately, a two-state solution would enable the normalisation of the economy that is needed, and hopefully a shift away from the humanitarian problems there have been for so many years. My hon. Friend mentioned reconstruction, and we are discussing that with a number of UN partners, but I would again mention the World Bank, which has been doing so much work, particularly on how finance can be accessed. Of course, a precondition for that is the ceasefire holding, which we continue to push for.

[Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)]

According to the UN, 1.9 million people in Gaza are currently displaced, which is 90% of the population. Half of them are children. How will the Minister work to secure the right of return and self-determination for Palestinians in Gaza, especially in the light of the calls from the US President to “clean out” Palestinians from the region?

[Anneliese Dodds]

The figure that the hon. Member quoted is right, and in some cases Gazans have been moved up to nine times because of recent events. She described Gazans as having the right of return, and I would underline that word “right”. They do have that right. That is clear under international humanitarian law, and it is a right that the UK will seek to ensure becomes a reality.

Gibraltar-Spain Border Checks

Jess Brown-Fuller Excerpts

Monday 14th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Dodds]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question, and the clearest answer that I can give is yes, yes and yes.

[Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)]

Last week, my mother was desperately trying to get out of Gibraltar and back to the UK to be with my grandmother, who had suddenly turned very ill and was receiving end-of-life care. The plane she was due to get on diverted to Malaga due to adverse weather conditions, but the border was closed to the passengers, stranding British citizens in Gibraltar, with no rescheduled flight and no offer of accommodation. I put on record my sincere thanks to the Minister of State responsible for Europe, North America and the overseas territories, the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty), and the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Alan Gemmell) for their advice and guidance during that very distressing period last week. Will the right hon. Lady advise, taking into account the challenges that Gibraltar airport faces, what steps she is taking to ensure that British passport holders facing emergencies can cross the border into Spain and return home swiftly?

[Anneliese Dodds]

I know the whole House would want to send our very best wishes to the hon. Member’s grandmother and that it regrets the really difficult situation that her family was placed in. The Government absolutely recognise the challenges, and have been working hard on them, and I am grateful for her kind recognition of that. There have been two challenges: the disruption caused by bad weather, for example, to Malaga, as otherwise there would have been planes landing on Gibraltar; and the issues she mentioned with the airport, which were caused by the ingress of water. I pay tribute to the RAF staff who have been working around the clock to try to set that right. We recognise the disruption and will continue to make many representations to ensure that those who should be able to smoothly exit and enter Gibraltar can do so in the future.