Ending child poverty would be an act of national renewal

When I was growing up in the vicarage on one of Europe’s largest housing estates, one of the highlights of our school mornings was finding a couple of the local naughty lads sat at our breakfast table – laughing, joking and tucking into the pancakes my mother had made. We thought it was fun. But for them, in the harsh days of Thatcherism, it was often the only way they got a meal before heading to school.

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Today, in Wales, it is different because our Welsh Labour Government has ensured every child has had the right to a free school breakfast for the past 21 years. They have been fed in new and refurbished schools because we chose to build when the Tories chose to scrap the previous UK Labour Government’s school building programme in England. And in the past year we’ve gone even further – ensuring every single primary school child gets a free school meal. That’s nearly 175,000 children fed every single day.

On top of that, we’ve introduced our school essentials grant – helping over 90,000 families with the cost of uniforms, shoes, and books. Because no child in Wales should ever miss out on learning because of what’s in their parents’ pockets.

When Labour is in power, we change lives.

We realised that you can’t educate children who are too distracted to learn because they went to bed hungry. We clock it when the six-year-old tells her teacher that food comes from the food bank. 

When Labour is in power, we change lives. And we have managed to maintain these life-enhancing policies despite more than a decade of Tory austerity.

We saw it clearly in the first decade of devolution – with Labour in power at Westminster, child poverty in Wales fell year after year. Families felt more secure. Children had more chances. 

But then came the Tories. Fourteen years of cuts. Fourteen years of families left to struggle. Fourteen years of children going without. And all that progress thrown into reverse.

Now, we face a choice. At every level of Government we need to ask what more we can do to inject hope into our poorest communities? Ask how we can give every child the dignity of a fair start in life?

The difference it makes

In Wales, time and again, we’ve chosen a different path. When the Tories scrapped Education Maintenance Allowance in England, we kept it  and extended it. When London under Boris Johnson cut Sure Start, we protected our version – Flying Start  – -giving families intensive support through every year of austerity. 

We’ve also invested £7 billion since 2022 to help families through the cost-of-living crisis, so that more money could be released by parents to support their children – fuel vouchers, free prescriptions, help with housing costs, emergency support when bills couldn’t be paid.

Our advice services alone have helped families unlock over £200 million they were entitled to. That is a Welsh Labour government in action: practical help, right when people need it. Many children living in poverty today are from families who are working and striving to hold down more than one job to make ends meet. 

We recognise that the best way to lift children out of poverty is to give their parents secure, well-paid jobs. That’s why we’ve focused on skills, on opportunities, and on building a stronger Welsh economy.

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We applaud the UK Government on increasing the minimum wage, making a difference to over 160,000 people in Wales alone.  

But even with all of that, we know it is not enough. Despite all the efforts we make, we know that more needs to be done. The truth is that the levers of power to make a difference to the number of children living in poverty in Wales lie with the UK Government. 

Ahead of the UK Government’s Child Poverty Taskforce reporting this autumn, this issue is more pertinent than ever.

We can go further

That’s why I stand with Gordon Brown in calling for bold choices: taxing those who should pay more and putting that money where it belongs – into the lives of children. That is not just the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do.

And it’s why, at the UK Labour Conference, I’ll be joining leaders from across Britain – from London to Manchester, Liverpool to Scotland – to show that wherever Labour is in power, we are already making a difference. 

But together, as one movement, we can go so much further.

Because child poverty isn’t inevitable. 

Failure is not an option for our children nor our society. We will all pay a price in wasted talent, in poorer health, in lost potential and those costs will ripple out for decades. 

Ending child poverty is not just an act of compassion, it is an act of national renewal.

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As Labour’s child poverty task force moves towards its report, now is the time for action. This is a defining moment, and the Labour Government must rise to the challenge. 

When future generations look back on this decade, let them say this… that we did not look away. That we did not shrug our shoulders. That we chose to act – with urgency, with compassion and with determination.

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