Gordon Brown will launch a scathing attack on the government’s failure to tackle rising child poverty, warning that Britain is creating a generation of suffering children. The former Labour prime minister is due to speak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Wednesday.
Brown will say it is a national disgrace that the number of children living below the poverty line is set to rise to over five million by the early 2020s. He argues that child poverty is heading towards “epidemic proportions”, reversing progress made during the Labour governments of 1997–2010.
The ex-chancellor, who used tax credits and benefit increases to boost poor families’ incomes, will attack the deep cuts announced by George Osborne in 2015. Brown cites a report for the Scottish government showing child poverty in Scotland could almost double from 210,000 to 400,000 between 2010 and 2027.
Brown notes that nearly two in five children in Scotland could be below the poverty line by the end of the next decade. He warns the trend will be replicated across the UK, with most poor children now in working families unable to earn enough to escape poverty.
Research by the Resolution Foundation shows that Labour’s tax credits reduced child poverty from three million in 1998 to 1.6 million in 2010. Brown argues that combining a living wage, higher child benefits, and more generous tax credits would be the most effective solution.
