Oral Answers to Questions

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

There is a consultation going on and I welcome the hon. Gentleman and others feeding into that. However, if he is serious about backing the builders and not the blockers, why do the Liberal Democrats fail to support the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, both here and in the other House?

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) (Lab)]

As the sixth richest economy in the world, we should not have 4.5 million children living in poverty. The former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has proposed raising £3 billion by looking at reforming gambling taxation. Will the Chancellor consider undertaking those reforms so that we can end the epidemic of child poverty?

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Dan Tomlinson)]

The issue of child poverty is incredibly important to this Government, and the child poverty taskforce will report later this year. I would like to add that this is an important personal issue for me: I grew up in family with very little money and I received free school meals as a child. For those children across the country who are living in poverty right now, I hope that they and their parents know that this Government are on their side and that we will do all we can to invest in our welfare system, in our economy and in ensuring that more people can get into work so that we can get poverty down, rather than have it rising as it did under the previous Government.