THE Labour government of Sir Keir Starmer has chosen to leave millions of children languishing in poverty, the SNP has charged.

The accusation comes just days after the Westminster government launched a strategy pledging to lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2029-30.

But with 450,000 of that number set to be achieved with April’s scrapping of the two-child cap, SNP MP Kirsty Blackman said: “The Labour government’s long-delayed, deeply unambitious strategy is just a rehash of previously announced policies.

“It’s a flop and a missed opportunity which will still leave four million children in poverty, barely moving the dial from the numbers seen after a decade of Westminster cuts.”

Drawing on House of Commons Library analysis commissioned by her party to argue that over a million more children could be raised above the poverty line if the British government mirrored Scottish government policy, she said: “If the Labour Party was serious about tackling poverty it would match SNP government action, including matching the SNP’s Scottish child payment across the UK.

“That would give Scottish and UK families an extra £1,400 a year per child and lift an additional 1.1 million children out of poverty — an impact three times greater than the UK government’s strategy alone.

“Scotland is the only part of the UK where child poverty is falling — as a direct result of SNP policies like the Scottish child payment, baby box, Best Start grant and SNP choices like mitigating the benefit cap and abolishing the bedroom tax.

“Why are Anas Sarwar and his Scottish Labour MPs refusing to call on their own Labour government to do the same?”

The British government was contacted for comment.