Oral Answers to Questions

Kirith Entwistle Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

The hon. Member has posed a very good and important question, and the issue of graduate unemployment is by no means confined to the UK. In the United States, for example, a similar debate about graduate unemployment is taking place. The truth is that structural developments are happening in the labour market. Technology is undergoing a big shift, and I think that all Governments must ask themselves how to help young people through this transition. The one thing that we cannot do is abandon them to it: we have to train people, and we have to ensure that the UK is best placed to take advantage of this big technological shift.

[Kirith Entwistle (Bolton North East) (Lab)]

10. What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of child poverty in the Bolton North East constituency.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Dame Diana Johnson)]

Under the last Government an additional 900,000 children became part of the child poverty statistics, but as a result of our Child Poverty Strategy, published in December, 550,000 will be lifted out of poverty by the end of the current Parliament—the largest number ever in a single Parliament. The removal of the two-child limit from April, for instance, could benefit about 4,710 children in my hon. Friend’s constituency.

[Kirith Entwistle]

I am proud that this Labour Government will lift more than 4,500 children in my constituency out of poverty by scrapping the two-child limit, but what further measures are the Government implementing to tackle child poverty and support families in my constituency?

[Dame Diana Johnson]

Reducing child poverty is a moral imperative for us all, and for this Government in particular. We know that growing up in poverty damages children’s health, education and future employment prospects. We have just been discussing the number of NEETs, and many of those children could become NEETs, so child poverty is bad for the UK’s economic prosperity as well. We had not just been waiting for the strategy in December; we had already introduced the extension of free school meals eligibility, tripled access to breakfast clubs and supported the holiday activities and food programme, and we have put £1 billion into the reforming crisis and resilience fund.