Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Dickson Excerpts

Monday 1st December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Olivia Bailey]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and for all the work that he does on this important topic. I agree with him wholeheartedly, and I very much hope and expect that our work with schools to ensure that healthy relationships are taught in them will mean that young men get the exact space that he is asking for.

[Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)]

3. What recent progress the child poverty taskforce has made on publishing a child poverty strategy.

[Kate Osamor (Edmonton and Winchmore Hill) (Lab/Co-op)]

7. What recent progress the child poverty taskforce has made on publishing a child poverty strategy.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)]

Tackling child poverty is a moral mission for the Labour party, because we believe that someone’s background should not determine what they go on to achieve in life. Scrapping the two-child limit will mean that we can deliver the largest reduction in child poverty in a single Parliament, and we will publish the child poverty strategy in the coming weeks.

[Jim Dickson]

The Government’s very welcome decision to end the two-child cap on benefits will, alongside free school meals and breakfast clubs, transform the lives of 2,500 children living in my Dartford constituency, and contribute to our manifesto goal of tackling child poverty. Will the Secretary of State tell the House when more schools in Dartford will be eligible to join the roll-out of free breakfast clubs to primary schools across the country?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Labour’s free breakfast clubs have already served 5 million meals, including in Knockhall primary school and Sedley’s primary school in Dartford. Applications are now open to join the next wave from April, with 2,000 more schools set to join in the next financial year, making the clubs available to half a million more children. I encourage eligible schools to get their applications in by the end of the week, so that we can give children in Dartford, and across our country, the best start to their day.