For far too long, growing up in poverty has meant having your life characterised in one of two ways: either you are seen as helpless and in need of charity, or you are from a community that is a drag on our economy.
That meant people at the sharp end of poverty were often cast as both the victim and the perpetrator. Either to blame, or powerless to change your own life. Under the Tories, you couldn’t win.
But we have a Labour government now, and it’s about time that we told the truth about poverty. The situation we inherited means that four million children are growing up poor in our country today, lacking the power or means to break out of this cycle. Poverty robs people of the opportunity to choose how to live their life.
But it’s not an inevitability. It’s often the result of poor political choices. It was a posh Scouser who, at the turn of the last century, campaigned for changes to employment rules and for the creation of family allowances. Eleanor Rathbone, who came from Liverpool merchant money, focused on workplace rights and social security precisely because she didn’t just want women to be free from starvation with hand-outs from well-meaning volunteers, but also to have power and choice in life.
Rathbone had money. Unlike most women then, she could study at university, write and be published, and sit on the same green benches I do now. Knowing the dignity of self-determination, Rathbone knew that poor families were not in need of condescension or condemnation but rather the power to take control of their own lives.
What was true at the turn of the last century is true now: families doing the right thing in the United Kingdom shouldn’t be poor. This is the cycle that Labour is determined to break. That’s why our Child Poverty Taskforce is ambitious and looking at all available levers, from increasing incomes to reducing the cost of essentials.
Since July, the Taskforce has taken part in more than 230 engagements with over 160 organisations. Most importantly, we’ve listened directly to children and parents living in poverty, putting them at the centre of the conversation.
Just a few weeks ago when I sat in Parliament ready to vote to support Scunthorpe’s steel workers, I was one of many Labour MPs in their forties who were just children when our own towns, and our own families, dealt with an unmanaged economic transition that left millions jobless.
I know that I speak for a lot of us in saying that moment in Parliament was part of a lifelong journey that began when we were children, watching panicked adults in fear of paying the rent or the mortgage. That fear is bad for everyone. It’s bad for children who should be free to take a risk on themselves, and it’s bad for our economy as we collectively pay the price of failure.
That’s why our Child Poverty Strategy will focus on bringing about enduring change for our children.
We will work alongside parents to help them into jobs and to move up in their careers, and we will tackle the biggest risks families face, whether that is poor housing or unsustainable indebtedness.
This will complement our Get Britain Working plan as we overhaul jobcentres, create better jobs, transform skills and deliver the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation.
And we are also putting more money in people’s pockets now. We have uprated benefits, increased the National Living Wage, boosting payslips by up to £2,500 a year, and we are capping debt repayments for people on Universal Credit, meaning 1.2 million households will be £420 better off each year.
By working across government, we will drive down child poverty in every corner of the country, raise living standards and deliver on our Plan for Change.
We will focus on the potential our children have to choose a future for themselves, with the dignity and reward of hard work and a good life to come.
This article first appeared in our Spotlight on Child Poverty supplement, of 23 May 2025, guest edited by Gordon Brown.
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