Skip to main content
Child poverty is appalling and discriminatory – no party unwilling to commit to fixing it is fit to govern
Years of neoliberal capitalism have poisoned our societies since the 1980s, driving down pay and causing misery for families up and down Britain, says CLAUDIA WEBBE MP

TO THE UK’s deep shame, 4.3 million children are now living in poverty. This is a record figure — and an increase of 100,000 children in just the last 12 months. Inequality is hard-baked into the British economy and is becoming ever more entrenched.

According to the latest figures from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), in an average class of around 30 children, nine will be living in poverty — and more than two-thirds of those children will be in families with at least one working parent. The government presents work as a “route out of poverty” — and the Labour “opposition” agrees, as recent statements by frontbenchers have shown.

But it is clear that in a nation of increasingly insecure and low-paid jobs, work represents drudgery and struggle — and, for millions of working people and their children, it means continuing in poverty.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
The vote count on May 1 at Grimsby Town Hall, Lincolnshire, for the Greater Lincolnshire Mayor election
Features / 6 May 2025
6 May 2025

With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE

Children sit and play on the remains of a tank, at the river
Features / 21 April 2025
21 April 2025

Keir Starmer’s £120 million to Sudan cannot cover the government’s complicity in the RSF genocide or atone for the long shadow of British colonialism and imperialism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

NO SAFE ZONES: Children walk by the destroyed house of journ
Features / 8 April 2025
8 April 2025
As Israel’s crimes escalate, Keir Starmer’s government must not subvert, block or ignore the investigation and prosecution of British citizens involved in acts of genocide, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
DEFIANT: Mexican
President Claudia
Sheinbaum
Features / 10 March 2025
10 March 2025
With trade wars backfiring, allies resisting military demands, and approval ratings plummeting, Trump’s dangerous pursuit of colonial ambitions threatens to end the ‘American century’ with catastrophic conflict, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
Similar stories
DAMAGING AGENDA:
Work and Pensions
Secretary Liz Kendall
Features / 24 February 2025
24 February 2025
Labour is deliberately continuing Tory policies that cost us £38 billion more than they save while driving illness rates higher — despite the evidence that previous sanctions doubled suicide attempts, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE