ANTI-POVERTY campaigners have backed calls for the government to re-establish a target for ending child poverty amid warnings that levels are set to soar in the next few years.

Child Poverty Action Group chief executive Alison Garnham said that two-thirds of the children in poverty live in working households, and that low pay is now the most significant cause of the problem.

Nearly four million children live in poverty in Britain, while the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says relative child poverty is set to rise by 50 per cent over the course of this Parliament.