‘The Child Poverty Strategy shows why a Labour government matters’

This is an adapted version of my analysis from the LabourList email this morning. To receive our email every weekday morning please subscribe here. 

Yesterday I was lucky enough to go to a food project and children’s centre in Lambeth alongside Labour councillors from Lambeth and Wandsworth.

The centre provides wraparound care for babies, children and families. There was a food bus outside selling cheap, nutritious vegetables. Inside children were writing letters to Father Christmas. A group of mothers were sewing in another room. The place felt vibrant and hopeful. The Better Start Area Manager, Androulla Charalambous told me they have a parent satisfaction rating of 98 percent.

This was the kind of place that was almost wiped out by Tory austerity. That Lambeth managed to hold on to what they had was down to a very determined Labour council. But things are turning around, and Labour have already announced they will open up to 1,000 of these Best Start Hubs across every single area in England.

READ MORE: Labour publish ambitious child poverty strategy to lift over half a million kids out of poverty by 2030

Today, with the release of the Child Poverty Strategy, they have gone further. Measures in the strategy will lift over half a million children out of poverty. Millions more families will see their incomes rise, their lives made a bit less tough, their children’s horizons expanded.

That’s why I was there to meet Local Government Minister Alison McGovern and Liz Kendall, now Secretary of State for Science and Technology but also the co-chair of the Child Poverty Taskforce for most of its existence in government.

The pride of both women – and the emotion they felt at what Labour plan to deliver was palpable. As Kendall said: “This is what we came into government to do. It’s a really important day for us.”

Kendall pointed out that the strategy has been written with experts in child poverty engaged throughout the process. It’s an ambitious strategy that aims to do more than has ever been done in a single parliament before. It will transform lives.

Equally they have been appalled by the rhetoric employed by the Tories, Reform and their press cheerleaders about “Benefits Street” – a sneer that denies the reality and humanity of those who will be helped, as McGovern has set out for us in a powerful op-ed.

There has been much chatter that the recent decision to lift the two-child benefit cap was a political move only made to appease the backbenches (McGovern describes this as “b*ll*cks”). That treats cabinet members as if they were separate creatures from Labour backbenchers with completely different ambitions for the country.

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Yes, there will be times when party members (myself included) will want the government to go further than they feel able to do. And yes, there was an element of party management to the decision. But that doesn’t mean that it was a decision they were angry to be forced to make. That would, indeed, be b*ll*cks.

We should remind ourselves that the cabinet are Labour Party members too. Brought into party activism by all the same instincts and values that brought the rest of us to party membership. If we are frustrated by what they tell us they can’t do – then we should assume with some good faith that they are doubly so.

Writing about politics can make you cynical sometimes. I am sure normal service will resume, with myself and the rest of the LabourList team writing fairly, accurately and honestly about things the party does – both right and wrong. Trust me, there are days when you want to tear your hair out.

This is not one of those days.

Labour can be proud of the strategy it has announced today. Now they must get on to deliver it. Because the pride those councillors I met today, the pride I shared with McGovern and Kendall is dwarfed not just by the ambitions of the government’s strategy but by the potential of the kids I met running around Jubilee Children’s Centre.

They are why a Labour government matters. They are why days like this are so important.

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