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7 hours ago
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Labour will not hold back the rise of Reform UK if it fails to tackle poverty, the Big Issue co-founder John Bird has warned as he tables an amendment to the schools bill that would force governments to meet legally binding child poverty reduction targets.
Lord Bird, who sits as a crossbench peer, said Nigel Farage’s party was “only going places because the major parties have lost their way”.
“This government, like those who came before, has lost the trust of its supporters by muddling through, caring more for the immediate than ensuring an enduring and better long-term future. Shuffling into the future and carrying poverty with them,” he said.
On Monday, Bird will table an amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill that would place a statutory duty on the government to set targets to reduce child poverty in England.
Bird, who was born in a Notting Hill slum in London in 1946 and became homeless aged five, said he feared the country was “returning to the deep, painful poverty I was born into”.
“The whims of politicians limit the economy’s ability to grow in a way that helps working people, creating poverty faster than any other point in the 21st century. So it is both a moral and a political necessity that Labour take urgent, meaningful action,” he said.
The latest official figures showed a record 4.5 million children were living in poverty in the UK in the year to April 2024, up 100,000 from the previous year.
In its general election manifesto, Labour promised an “ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty”, which is expected to be published in the coming months. But campaigners have warned that unless the government scraps policies such as the two-child benefit cap, child poverty numbers could rise.
Bird said the amendment “would mean all future governments will be held to account on reducing child poverty”.
“It would hold this government’s feet to the fire in taking long-term, truly preventive action for the 4.5 million children in this country who live in poverty – and signal to the UK public that they are finally taking poverty seriously,” he said.
The move is being backed by the National Children’s Bureau, whose chief executive, Anna Feuchtwang, said “legally binding targets to reduce child poverty will help turn political rhetoric into actual change in people’s lives”.
“Either the government fulfils its manifesto pledge and holds itself accountable for creating a society where all children can thrive, or we risk child poverty continuing to rise over the next four years,” she added. “Only by committing to long-term measurable goals can we prevent poverty being a political football.”
YouGov polling for the Big Issue found that 72% of British people surveyed thought Labour should be doing more to tackle poverty in the UK, a figure that has risen by 18% in just over six months.
In September 2024, 54% of Britons felt the government was not doing enough for people in poverty.
The schools bill, which is being prepared for scrutiny at committee stage in the House of Lords, includes a range of new laws aimed at improving the safeguarding and welfare of children, as well as improving education.
The wide-ranging proposals include a national register for children not in school, free breakfast clubs in all primary schools, legal limits on branded uniform items and stricter rules for academy schools.
