‘The Tories sneer at ordinary Brits — Labour is determined to lift them up’

Did you hear the words of the leader of the opposition? She said Labour’s budget was a budget for ‘Benefit Street’. It was a flashback returning us to a decade ago. The Tory front bench on the hunt for any opportunity to pour scorn on people they believed were beneath them and ordinary humans being denigrated on the television.

Nothing has changed for the Tories in the 10 years since George Osborne proudly horrified us with his scroungers versus strivers rhetoric. They still think that pouring scorn on those poorer than themselves helps them politically.

But something changed for the rest of us. From then to now, the Tories in office increased child poverty by about one million.

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

Think of the damage that has done, day in day out, to so many young lives. And imagine being proud of it? Proud enough to want to drag everyone back to where it started.

I don’t have to imagine the consequences. I think of one dad who came to the door in my constituency when I was doorknocking in the 2024 General Election. Holding a baby with two more playing in the hall, he spoke to me about the election. Just get rid of them, he said. I noticed the floor in the house was bare concrete.

In the ten years between 2015 and 2025, Trussell says that food parcels distributed to children increased 156 per cent.

This is why our Child Poverty Strategy is urgent. This is why the measures in it to lift incomes; help parents get into and get on in work; to get our kids out of temporary accommodation – including in the worst cases long stays in B&Bs – and put a roof over their heads; and to get parents the support they need – are vital.

It’s not just the worst poverty we are taking on. The budget data shows that the impact of getting rid of the two child limit will be felt all through the bottom half of income distribution. It’s not just the relief of destitution that we’ll see, it’s also help for people who are struggling. The same is true of breakfast clubs, train fares, bus routes and many of the other things Labour is doing to help families. Year by year, things have to get easier.

In the same election, I went to a parents group at a community centre. We were sat around a dinner table sharing some pasta as we listened to the children read out loud. I overheard a mum telling her child they would stay over at a friend’s house that night because they couldn’t afford the bus to school the next day.

For the 60 percent of people impacted by the two child limit who are in work it’s the chance, at last, of a little holiday or a Christmas where the answer to everything doesn’t need to be no. There has to be joy and possibility.

Children growing up need to feel they have choices. They need to feel that things can get better and that they can spend family time enjoying themselves. They have to feel hope, see happiness and believe that life has something to offer them.

This is what our Child Poverty Strategy opens up.

Because the children the budget will help are real life. They and their parents aren’t stereotypes. They deserve a decent childhood.

But those children – and all of us who know what it is to see your parents deal with the stress of bills too high and pay too low – hear it when the Tories sneer. We hear what they think of us. Especially families of three children (apparently now a sign of lacking personal responsibility) we hear it all.

For too long, people in this country have known that the Conservative Party look down their noses at them. The same people who were content for child poverty to rise for over a decade and the people who are happier now having a go at people rather than helping.

Everyone who cares about this country’s children has a responsibility to fight back. Don’t let other people be condemned for the circumstances of their birth. And certainly don’t let them be shamed.

Only a Tory party determined to divide should be shamed. And a nation should stand together to do it. The message of the 2024 election was ‘change’. Until the Tories have genuine regret for denigrating children in poverty, and change their policy, opposition to them should be absolute.

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