Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

I am afraid I will disappoint the hon. Gentleman: we will look at relative poverty after housing costs, but we will go further and look to alleviate the very deepest poverty. It is appalling that hundreds of thousands of families are forced to rely on food banks—something that I know only too well from my time chairing Feeding Leicester. We will look at relative poverty, deep poverty and what it will take to give every child the very best start in life, by bringing together support from public services, charities and other groups. That is the way to bring down poverty and make the changes sustainable.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Northern Ireland has some of the highest child poverty figures in the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I am sure that the Secretary of State wants to help. We have had a 70% increase in food bank usage in my constituency in the past 12 months, which is an incredible indication. Will she kindly tell me what discussions she has had with her counterpart in the Northern Ireland Assembly on what more can be done to help?

[Liz Kendall]

The Minister from Northern Ireland is a member of our child poverty taskforce. I hope to visit soon and the co-chair of the taskforce, the Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson), also plans to visit. We have introduced the new fair repayment rate to slash the level of universal credit deductions because, as food banks in my constituency have told me, that really pushes people into poverty. That is not what the Government should be doing, and that is why we have taken action. I look forward to coming to Northern Ireland to talk to the hon. Gentleman, his constituents and the organisations fighting poverty to see what more we can do.