Birmingham Ladywood MP condemns Tory Government for failure to act on child poverty in Birmingham Ladywood

Shabana Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Ladywood, has today condemned the Tory Government for its utter failure to protect children across Birmingham Ladywood, and called for them to implement a new child poverty strategy for England.

Mahmood’s call comes after the Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, revealed that child poverty is predicted to rise sharply  unless the Government commits to a bold, broad response to tackle it.

Figures for Birmingham Ladywood are some of the bleakest in England with 46% of children growing up in relative poverty and 36% in absolute poverty. In both cases that’s double the Great Britain national average.

Shabana Mahmood,  MP for Birmingham Ladywood, said:

“Nearly half of all children in Birmingham Ladywood are growing up in poverty. That figure should shame the Government. For the last 10 years I have been calling for action from them, but at each and every turn we hear more excuses.

“One of the key duties of any government is to ensure that we all can unlock our potential. This is only achieved with good schools, wonderful healthcare and decent jobs. The last Labour Government knew this to be true and that is why we nearly eliminated this blight on society with the Child Poverty Act.

“The Children’s Commissioner is right in what she says. The Government needs to step up, not step aside, and implement a far-reaching child poverty reduction strategy. Continued failure to do so will see poverty rise throughout this Parliament.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Constituency level data on child poverty can be found here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency-data-child-poverty/

More information from the Children’s Commissioner’s announcement can be found here: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/2021/01/21/politicians-must-take-child-poverty-out-of-the-too-difficult-box-and-come-up-with-a-big-bold-plan-to-fix-it/