Politics that makes a difference
Over half a million children, lifted out of poverty
Hello,
Welcome to the first post on my brand new Substack newsletter. You’re probably wondering why I’m here. I’ll get into it in more detail below, but the long and short of it is that I’m always looking for new ways to explain why we are doing what we are doing.
I’m not going to send you something at the same time every week, but I do intend to post here regularly. So do subscribe to get those updates.
I wanted my first post here to be about something important. And I’m not sure if there is anything more important to this Labour Government than giving our children the best start in life. So today, when we launched our Child Poverty Strategy, seemed like the right moment to post.
Read on to hear about what we’ve done and why we’ve done it. And do subscribe to keep up to date!
Keir.
Stacey is 39 from Bristol. She has two children. She works full-time in an office. And seven years ago, in 2018, her life changed in an instant when her husband was killed in a car crash on her own road.
I can’t even imagine what that must have felt like. Even in a job like mine – which regularly involves meeting people who have suffered greatly – Stacey’s story stands out. But not just for the shock and the trauma, also for the courage. Because even when you are in grief and pain, the world keeps turning. Stacey still had to look after her kids, then aged just 2 and 4. She still had to find a way to put food on their table. And she still had to find the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
That’s why today I was so proud to launch our Child Poverty Strategy, alongside Stacey, at Ely Children’s Centre, on the outskirts of Cardiff. And I say “our” strategy very deliberately. Because Stacey is part of “Changing Realities” a group of more than 200 parents and carers living on a low income across the UK. They want change. And they have come together to make sure that the voice of people like Stacey is heard by people, like the Government, with the power to deliver that change.
That is exactly what Changing Realities have done for the Child Poverty Taskforce which has drawn up our strategy. They have brought people like Stacey into the process, making sure that people on low income have a seat at the table when we are making decisions.
Skin in the game
It’s a problem in politics more broadly. I have always thought that people who have “skin in the game” will better understand the issues they face than people sitting at a desk far away from their concerns. To be honest, when I write it like that, it feels like a statement of basic common sense. And yet so much of the way policy decisions are informed – the research that supports them, the ideas that are created, even the problems that get your attention – doesn’t really follow that ethos. It’s something I am trying to change about the way Government works. I’ve set up a Partnerships Unit inside Number 10, with a specific remit to make sure people like Stacy are influencing the decisions that affect her. And working with Changing Realities means that approach is written through every single word in the Child Poverty strategy.
Now, I can’t say that I’ve agreed with everything Stacey has said throughout the process! And I know many people on the taskforce want us to deliver even more – that is the energy and enthusiasm they have brought to this project. Nonetheless, I am proud of the strategy. I am proud because it stands up for people like Stacey – and that’s not something politics has done for a while. I’m proud to stand next to Stacey as a partner in developing the strategy. And I hope she will look back on it as a moment of pride, as well.
A fair start in life
Because, as she told the taskforce, life in Britain today is not easy for people like her. Stacey works hard. In recent years, as the cost-of-living crisis has taken hold, she’s been working harder still. Universal Credit tops up her income. Yet it is not enough, and she still worries “every single day” about how to put food on her kids’ table.
Stacey told me it is the unexpected things - the washing machine breaking, the car failing the MOT, the school trip that comes out the blue – that can unravel your best laid plans. And millions of people across Britain will recognise that feeling. I recognise it. I have family – my sister, a care-worker – in a similar position. That is exactly what she says as well.
This is why I get frustrated when some politicians try to make out the welfare state is there only to help people who don’t work (and that’s a polite way of characterising their rhetoric). The evidence could not be clearer on this. Three quarters of children growing up in poverty in Britain today come from working families. Most people who need support are already working.
But as Stacey’s story shows, there’s a bigger argument here as well. Who knows when misfortune might strike out of nowhere? Who knows when you might really need help? That’s what the welfare state is really for – it’s why we call it a safety net.
And so it felt good to be launching this strategy in Wales, with people who can see its value in their own lives. After all, in some ways Wales is the spiritual home of the NHS and our welfare state. The Labour Party created these institutions for working people from communities like the towns and villages of the Welsh valleys. They had a clear purpose. To protect those people from the social ills of sickness, worklessness and poverty.
The sad truth is that during fourteen years of Tory Government the welfare state has not been doing that anywhere near effectively enough. It has written off too many of our young people as sick, pushing them out of sight and mind, rather than tackling the problems they face. And it has left far too many of our children in poverty – an extra 900,000 children, compared to 2010 when the last Labour Government left office.
For a country like Britain, that is shameful. It offends our core belief that every child should have the opportunity to go as far as their talent takes them. That their life chances should be defined, not by their circumstances or their background, but by their effort and their enterprise. Poverty is always a barrier to that. Think about it. Think about a child going to school without breakfast. Cold, because they can’t afford to put their heating on in the morning. Tired, because the same thing happened yesterday and the day before that and the day before that. Think about their school uniform, too small or worn-through. Think about what that might feel like. The embarrassment it may cause around their friends.
The question is this: is that child really ready to learn to the best of their ability? Are we really giving them the fair start in life they deserve? The answer is clearly: no. And that is what our child poverty strategy aims to fix.
So – what is in it?
The child poverty strategy
There are a number of new policies:
Extra investment in dedicated new homes to stop children growing up in bed and breakfasts.
Expanding free school meals to an extra 500,000 hungry children.
Expanding childcare support for families eligible for universal credit.
Tough new rules on retailers and vouchers for parents, in a drive to reduce the cost of infant formula milk.
Restricting the number of branded school uniform items that schools can require from parents to just three.
Scrapping the two-child benefit limit.
Taken together, these policies will lift over half a million children out of poverty. That’s the biggest reduction in child poverty of any single Government ever.
But, as I argued above, it’s also impossible to look at poverty and not see the visible impact of the cost-of-living crisis. Everything I try to do on child poverty should be seen in this light – part of a wider fight against the cost of living. That’s why we’ve also expanded free childcare, cutting costs for hundreds of thousands of working parents. It’s why we’re rolling out free breakfast clubs at schools across the country. It’s why, at the recent budget, we cut energy bills by £150 rising to £300 for poorer households. And it’s why we’re also raising the minimum wage against next April, giving a boost to carers, cleaners, shopworkers and millions more.
A sound investment in Britain’s future
Now, in many ways the best argument for all of this is the moral one. My vision is to create a Britain truly built for all. I want to unlock the potential of every citizen and community in the country. There is no place for child poverty in that idea. But the evidence that mounts up in our strategy is that cutting child poverty is also a sound investment in Britain’s future.
For example, there is clear evidence that cutting child poverty makes young people more likely to get a good job or training place when they take their first steps in the adult world. There is a long-term impact on things like wages and educational attainment. And there is also good evidence to suggest that poverty can have a detrimental impact on health. Take this chart, from our research, which shows the clear relationship between different poverty ‘events’ and poor mental health outcomes:
This was explained to me, when I visited a hospital with the Chancellor after the budget. When we told the nurses and staff there that we were scrapping the two-child benefit cap, they genuinely cheered. The reason, they told us, was because it is hard to believe just how many children that pass through their doors are there because of a condition relating to poverty. So cutting poverty is a sound investment, not just in our economic future, but also in our public services too. A policy that can ease the pressure on our NHS and even help cut waiting times. That has to be good for all of us.
Now, I will always be straight-talking on this Substack. And so the reality is that these policies were funded at the Budget by rising taxes. This, of course, is not something politicians ever want to do – taxes make life harder for the people who pay them. But when it comes to something like the budget, there are only ever a few ways to pay for new policies. You can cut spending on public services or infrastructure investment. You can borrow money and take on more debt. Or you can raise taxes.
My view is that the first two of these options have been tested to destruction. We have been through years of austerity and cuts to public investment. Recent analysis provided by organisations like the Office of Budget Responsibility – the Government’s financial watchdog – seem pretty clear cut to me on this. Put simply, all the cuts to investment have weakened our productivity and left Britain’s economy measurably poorer. So more austerity is a false economy. You just end up with greater costs in the long-run.
As for extra borrowing, this does not seem wise to me given the stormy nature of the global economy. It’s the route Liz Truss went down – she borrowed money up-front to pay for tax cuts for the rich. That, of course, was a calamity, pushing up interest rates and inflation, meaning everybody who takes out a car loan, a mortgage, or anything to do with interest rates, must now pay much more. It doesn’t matter that her borrowing was for tax cuts. The same would happen if you borrowed for excessive public spending. And Britain already pays far too much on debt interest payments, reducing the money we can spend on other priorities. In short, it’s a total dead end.
This left us with a choice between raising taxes – for example, on gambling or large ‘mansion’ properties – or ignoring child poverty and the cost-of-living. And I am happy with my choice to cut child poverty dramatically and spend on cost-of-living policies, like reducing your energy bills. I think that’s fair for working people. It’s fair for our children. And ultimately it’s fair for Britain’s future.
There is a wider point here. People will tell you politics doesn’t make a difference. But the difference on child poverty could not be clearer. Tory Governments let it rise. Labour Governments cut it. And we do so to give our children the fair start in life they deserve. That is a choice I am proud to make.
What to expect from this substack
Since you’ve got this far, I’ll leave you with one final explanation. Except this one isn’t about child poverty, it’s about this Substack. After all, I think I am the only world leader that has decided to communicate in this way. So you probably want to know: why?
The simple answer is that communication is changing and I want to be part of that. People have a right to know how decisions that affect them are taken and why. And I believe all politicians should explore innovative new ways to do that. So in this Substack that’s what I will be doing. Showing you a little bit of what life is like in Number 10. But mainly just explaining the various decisions I take to try and create that Britain which is built for all.