Welfare Spending

Debate between Gill German and Jim Shannon

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gill German]

I have just given way, so I will make some progress.

I came to this place because I did not want to mitigate the impact of child poverty any more—I wanted to do something about it. That is exactly what this Labour Government are doing, by boosting the minimum wage, taking others on the pay scale up with it; by investing in getting people trapped outside the labour market into work—the surest route out of poverty in the long term for them and the generations that follow; by negotiating trade deals to bring food costs down; by expanding the warm home discount, so that almost 1 million more families can afford to pay their bills, and investing in our own clean energy to bring those bills down for good; by increasing the standard rate of universal credit above inflation for the first time ever; and by establishing a fair payment rate for those who find themselves immediately in arrears with universal credit, which is a recognised driver for food bank use—an early action towards our manifesto promise to end mass food bank dependence for good. That is what action looks like—not indifference, not inertia, and not blaming those who are in need of support.

I know only too well that the drivers of child poverty are complex and multifaceted, but we must not shy away from that complexity. That is why I am proud that one of this Government’s first actions was to begin work on a child poverty strategy where, importantly, everything is on the table to drive down poverty and drive up opportunity.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Will the hon. Lady give way on that point?

[Gill German]

I am just about to finish, if the hon. Gentleman will forgive me.

I look forward to the findings of the child poverty taskforce in the autumn. More than that, I look forward to getting to work to make child poverty a thing of the past, so that we can continue to act, rather than to blame as the motion does today. We must put child poverty into the dustbin of history, where it belongs.