Child Food Poverty

Beth Winter Excerpts

Monday 24th May 2021 Westminster Hall

[Beth Winter (Cynon Valley) (Lab) [V]]

A staggering 4.3 million children in the UK currently live in households below the poverty line, according to the End Child Poverty coalition, and of the four UK nations Wales has the highest level of child poverty. In my constituency of Cynon Valley, 35% of children live in poverty, well above the UK average of 30%.

The rising levels of inequality, poverty and hardship in our country are no better illustrated than by the shockingly increasing prevalence of food poverty in the UK. It has been estimated that 2.4 million children in Britain are at risk of malnutrition as a result of living in poverty. Words cannot describe how incensed I am by that, and we should all be filled with anger about the fact that we in the UK, one of the richest nations in the world, have allowed this situation to arise. We should be ashamed that food banks have been normalised in this country; it is a political choice and a shocking indictment of us.

The benefits of free nutritious school meals for children are well known: the health and wellbeing of our children; improved educational attainment; and boosting local economies. I must commend the Welsh Government for the work they have done to date on tackling child poverty. We are the only country in the UK to have a scheme providing universal free breakfasts in primary schools in Wales, and the Welsh Government are the first in the UK to provide such provision during school holidays, which has now been extended until Easter 2022. And that has been achieved in spite of decades of underfunding and austerity from Tory Governments.

However, more can and must be done throughout the United Kingdom, drawing on the excellent and tireless campaigning of organisations here in Wales—the anti-poverty coalition, Child Poverty Action Group and the Bevan Foundation—and especially at a UK level on the work of my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Ian Byrne), Baroness Chakrabarti and fan-supported food banks in Liverpool. I call on every nation in the UK to enshrine the right to food in law, which could include an immediate expansion of eligibility for free school meals to all children in families receiving universal credit or equivalent benefits; a move towards the provision of universal nutritious free school breakfast and lunch for every child in compulsory education; and the school kitchens to become community kitchens; welfare benefit system changes that give people security and dignity, including but not limited to a permanent £20 uplift to universal credit, which should be extended to legacy benefits; and piloting universal basic income following the lead from Welsh Government.

I recognise the cost implications, but they are not insurmountable. We can afford it; we are the fifth richest country in the world. Why not introduce a wealth tax—a windfall tax—on covid profits and end tax evasion and avoidance by the rich? There is another way. We need to get our priorities right as a country, and I am determined to do everything I can in collaboration with others to end the scourge of child food poverty.