Child Poverty Strategy

Janet Daby Excerpts

Monday 8th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

This is an ambitious strategy, which will see the largest ever reduction in the number of children growing up in poverty in a single Parliament since records began. No one can accuse us of lacking ambition when it comes to driving down those numbers. While I note the hon. Lady’s reference to the introduction of the two-child limit, I would observe that it was after 2010—under the coalition Government—that we saw, for example, the mass closure programme of Sure Start centres right across our country, even though the evidence was clear about the outcomes that they delivered and the difference they made to families. That is why I am proud that this Labour Government are bringing back Sure Start for a new generation with Best Start family hubs to ensure that all families and children get the support they need.

Running alongside that, as I have set out, we are investing £39 billion in social and affordable housing, the single biggest uplift in support in a generation, to build the social and affordable homes that people in London and across our country desperately need. That runs alongside all the measures in the Employment Rights Bill, the changes around universal credit and the expansion of free school meals; we are putting an extra £1 billion into supporting families. This Labour Government are investing to deliver the brighter future that all our children deserve.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

Official figures show that over 4,000 children in my constituency are living in poverty, and many of those families have one parent in work. I warmly welcome the Secretary of State’s child poverty strategy and all the work that she and her colleagues have done, as well as the lifting of the two-child limit, but would she agree that what we now need to see is children and families not needing to use food banks?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for all the work that she did in the Department for Education and for all that she continues to do to champion the life chances of children in her community and across our country. She contributed a lot to the work that has gone into the strategy; I am grateful to her for that.

I agree with her: I want to live in a country where families have enough money to go to the shops to buy the food that they want for their children and to make the decisions that are right for them. I pay tribute to the amazing volunteers in our community organisations and churches who give their time freely to run the food banks, but I hope that in the years to come we can shut down those food banks and make sure that all families have a good level of income and do not have to depend on the good will of strangers to get by.