Yvonne Fovargue MP: ​We must reduce child poverty so everyone has best start in life

For too many children, across too much of our country, their backgrounds are affecting their opportunities, all their lives long.

Every parent wants the best for their children, but many are struggling. Wages are too low, childcare is too expensive, decent homes are unaffordable and the social security system is not properly protecting and supporting those who rely on it.

Foodbank use and in-work poverty have risen and more than four million children are now living in poverty. The Government has declined to say whether the fund will continue for 2024/25. I recognise that this lack of certainty about the fund will disappoint many people and I hope that Ministers will provide clarity on this point.

At present, local councils are being left in limbo as they try to plan for their 2024/25 budgets and I fear that this may lead to interruptions to service provision and job losses.

More widely, I want to ensure parents have the early support they need to provide every child with a firm foundation that sets them up for life.

Reducing child poverty should be at the centre of how we secure opportunity for children and young people from every background, but I worry that Ministers do not have a serious plan to tackle it.

I support calls to involve child poverty experts in a cross-Government taskforce dedicated to breaking down the barriers to opportunity for every child.

I also want to see reform of Universal Credit alongside a modern childcare system that supports parents from the end of parental leave to the end of primary school, with breakfast clubs in every primary school and councils enabled to deliver more childcare provision where parents need it.

By reducing poverty and providing effective early help, I believe it is possible we can alleviate some of the pressures on families. We need to take these steps to ensure that every child has the best possible start in life.

The situation in Gaza is deeply upsetting. The scale of death and destruction has been intolerable.

In December last year, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution that called for all parties to respect their obligations under international law, to allow full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access into and throughout Gaza and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities. The next humanitarian truce is urgent and, in the space it brings, intense diplomacy should begin to set new terms under which fighting does not restart and the risk of escalation is reduced.

I believe long-term Israeli security and long-term Palestinian justice cannot be delivered by bombs and bullets. Open-ended military action without a clear and desired political outcome is ultimately futile. A political agreement, however unlikely it seems today, is the only way to resolve this conflict.

So often the trauma of the present leads directly to the tragedy of the future. If the international community and regional partners do not do their best to reach a two-state solution in a systematic and coherent way, this terrible conflict will continue to be replicated in the future.