Child Poverty Strategy

Peter Swallow Excerpts

Monday 8th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

The hon. Member is right to say that the majority of children in poverty are living in working families. It is an artificial political dividing line to suggest anything other than that; the evidence is clear for anyone who wants to look at it. There are a number of reasons for this situation. Low pay is one of them, and that is why we are increasing the national minimum wage. Access to childcare has also been a big barrier, particularly for many single parents, over a long period of time. One key element that we considered during the development of the strategy, alongside lifting the two-child limit, was supporting more second earners in two-earner households into work or into working more hours, as that would be one of the most effective ways to lift more children out of poverty. That is why we are investing £9 billion next year in expanding Government-funded childcare, creating new school-based nurseries and rolling out free breakfast clubs nationally to make sure that parents have better choices at the start of the school day.

[Peter Swallow (Bracknell) (Lab)]

I am honoured to represent Bracknell in this place. It is a relatively prosperous community, but still one in five children are growing up in poverty after housing costs. Bracknell food bank gave out 8,000 food parcels last year, 3,000 of them to children. Does my right hon. Friend agree that poverty affects all communities across the UK, with children living in poverty in every constituency, and that that is why it must be our moral mission to stamp out child poverty wherever we find it?

[Bridget Phillipson]

My hon. Friend is right to say that child poverty blights the life chances of children right across our country, including in communities that might otherwise appear affluent. There will always be children who are enduring the hardship and injustice of poverty, and I am grateful for his support and everything that he does to champion the life chances of children in his community. The strategy that we are setting out will deliver real changes to children, not just in Bracknell but across our country.