Tories planned to “stop monitoring child poverty”

According to The Times:

“Two Cabinet ministers and David Cameron’s most trusted adviser drew up a plan to stop monitoring child poverty…Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, Oliver Letwin, the Cabinet Office minister, and Steve Hilton, the Prime Minister’s chief policy guru, called for Britain’s official child poverty measure to be scrapped amid signs that it would produce a string of bad headlines for the Government.

A compromise over child poverty has now been reached within the coalition. The income measure will be retained, but others will be added to create a more “nuanced” picture of child poverty in Britain. They are likely to concentrate on a child’s access to education and health services. Ministers believe the additional measures will produce more favourable results.“

More favourable to who exactly? Certainly not those children living in poverty who look set to be bumped off official figures…

Update: This move is even more depressing and cynical when viewed alongside this 2007 speech from Cameron “Nothing matters more than children”, in which he laments the lack of progress on eliminating child poverty. (h/t @danhancox)