Oral Answers to Questions

Kate Osamor Excerpts

Monday 1st December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)]

3. What recent progress the child poverty taskforce has made on publishing a child poverty strategy.

[Kate Osamor (Edmonton and Winchmore Hill) (Lab/Co-op)]

7. What recent progress the child poverty taskforce has made on publishing a child poverty strategy.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)]

Tackling child poverty is a moral mission for the Labour party, because we believe that someone’s background should not determine what they go on to achieve in life. Scrapping the two-child limit will mean that we can deliver the largest reduction in child poverty in a single Parliament, and we will publish the child poverty strategy in the coming weeks.

[Bridget Phillipson]

Labour’s free breakfast clubs have already served 5 million meals, including in Knockhall primary school and Sedley’s primary school in Dartford. Applications are now open to join the next wave from April, with 2,000 more schools set to join in the next financial year, making the clubs available to half a million more children. I encourage eligible schools to get their applications in by the end of the week, so that we can give children in Dartford, and across our country, the best start to their day.

[Kate Osamor]

I welcome the announcement that the two-child benefit cap will be scrapped, lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty. However, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research and Praxis, there are an estimated 382,000 children in poverty whose families are subject to no recourse to public funds and who will not be helped by that measure. Will the Secretary of State promise me that the child poverty strategy will include extra assistance for migrant households?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising her concern. We are working with the Home Office and with colleagues across Government in developing the child poverty strategy. We will focus on ensuring that vulnerable children are protected and their welfare is safeguarded, and that vulnerable migrant children receive the support they require.