Tories have failed 10 tests for tackling poverty, says Labour report

Labour has released a new report identifying ten ways in which the Tories have “entrenched poverty across Britain” and “failed crucial tests for tackling poverty and improving living standards”.

The report, Poverty Britain, highlights ten trends that show how policies adopted by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition and Conservative government have entrenched poverty in the UK since 2010.

The 14-page document measures the Conservatives’ record against ten ‘tests’:

• Child poverty: Since 2010, the number of children growing up in relative poverty has increased by nearly one million.
• Child deprivation: There number of children in severe low income and deprivation has risen nearly 50% from 2011/12 to 2017/18.
• In-work poverty: New analysis shows that in-work poverty has increased by 1.5 million since 2010/11.
• Wages: Wage stagnation under the Conservatives has cost the average worker around £6,300 in lost wages.
• Disposable income: The pay squeeze combined with deep cuts to social security, has cut growth in household disposable income in half, costing the average household £1,000 a year.
• Food banks: New analysis shows that food banks have given out 65 million meals in the last five years, the equivalent of a meal for every person in the whole of the UK.
• Homelessness: The number of people sleeping on our streets has more than doubled since 2010 to an estimated 4,677 people.
• Pensioner poverty: Too many older people are going without the dignity and security they deserve.
• Personal savings: There are now over 20 million adults with no savings, an increase of nearly three million since 2010/11.
• Disability poverty: Poverty in families where someone is disabled has risen by over a million since 2010.

Commenting on the new report, John McDonnell said: “Poverty in Britain is now the most visible and widespread it has been in decades. This new report shows the Tories have failed to tackle ten modern scourges of poverty, each becoming more entrenched on their watch.”

The Shadow Chancellor added: “The next Labour government will wage war on poverty in all its forms, eliminating in-work poverty, ending austerity and raising living standards across the country. The choice at this election couldn’t be clearer: more stress and struggle for millions to make ends meet under the Tories or real change with Labour.”

The report from Labour follows one from the United Nations, earlier this year, that said the social safety net in the UK has been “deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos”. The special rapporteur declared that “ideological” cuts to public services since 2010 have led to “tragic consequences”.

In July, the Social Metrics Commission revealed that more than four million people in the UK are living in poverty with an income 50% below the official breadline. The commission also found that seven million people were in what’s known as ‘persistent poverty’ – meaning they’d been in poverty for two out of the last three years.

Labour’s plan to reverse poverty in the UK includes introducing a £10 living wage, scrapping universal credit and the benefit cap and ending the freeze on in-work benefits. The party has also committed to expanding free childcare, bringing in free school meals for all primary school children, capping credit card and overdraft repayments, and ring-fencing homes for people with a history of rough sleeping.

Read the full report here.