FORMER prime minister Gordon Brown piled pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves today to tackle the “shameful epidemic” of child poverty.

In a speech in London that took place after the Morning Star went to print, Mr Brown was due to warn that the issue has become both the biggest cause of social division and threat to Britain’s long-term economic future in a call for her to raise taxes on gambling firms to cover the cost of lifting the two-child benefit cap in her Budget later this month.

The former Labour leader was also expected to call for the creation of a permanent country-wide, all-party anti-poverty alliance of charities, foundations, businesses and faith groups to work with governments across the four nations to tackle rising child poverty.

Marking the 60th anniversary of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), he planned to say: “This is urgently needed to take half a million children out of poverty from April next year and to meaningfully tackle Britain’s shameful epidemic of child poverty.”

The Chancellor is expected to make changes to the two-child benefit limit in her Budget.

Reforms to gambling levies could generate the £3.2 billion needed to scrap both the two-child limit and benefit cap, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Official estimates say 4.45 million children were in relative low income households, after housing costs, in the year to March 2024 - the highest number since comparable records for Britain began in 2002/03.

CPAG chief executive Alison Garnham said: “Now more than ever with child poverty at a record high, we need decisive action from government and the first step must be full abolition of the two-child limit.

“Half-measures and compromises will not shift the dial. The policy must be removed in its entirety or a generation of children will grow up cut off from opportunity.”

Polling for the campaign group 38 Degrees suggests 64 per cent of people support increasing taxes on gambling companies if the money was used to reduce child poverty.

A government spokesperson said that its strategy will set out how to “tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.”

They added: “We are investing £500 million in children’s development through the rollout of Best Start Family Hubs, extending free school meals and ensuring the poorest don’t go hungry in the holidays through a new £1 billion crisis support package.”