Skip to main content
Ending child poverty must be only the start
The Covid-19 pandemic has further exposed the deep and entrenched levels of poverty that exists in our country — we need a bold new programme, writes JON TRICKETT MP

TORY Britain, 2020. The great thing about our country is that everywhere you look there are folk organising to help each other. At work, in the community, in churches, neighbourhood groups, trade unions, schools, food banks and clothes banks and universities.

The question is how to tie all this spontaneous activity together into a movement for real change. It is no longer time to play the usual rules of politics. And it’s certainly not the time to abstain on one Tory proposal after another. It’s time to resist.

The statistics are stark: 1.9 million emergency food parcels; 4.3 million children and 1.9 million pensioners living in poverty; 17,000 deaths a year caused by cold housing; over a million households in desperate need of social housing, with 100,000 waiting for more than ten years; 4 million people living below the breadline, despite working, and a 141 per cent increase in people living on the streets since 2010.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Nato forces
Features / 15 June 2026
15 June 2026

Economists estimate extreme poverty could be drastically reduced for a fraction of global defence spending, yet military budgets continue to expand year on year, says JON TRICKETT MP, ahead of the Stop the War International Conference on Saturday

DESPERATE FOR CHANGE: We can find the money to transform Britain and deliver a better life for the majority, says Andy McDonald
Features / 29 September 2025
29 September 2025

If we can tackle the big issues, like delivering decent public services and affordable state-built and owned housing by making the richest pay a fair amount of tax, Labour can win back the trust and support of the electorate, argues ANDY McDONALD MP

WE MUST DO BETTER: Jon Trickett speaks in the House of Commons, September 10 2025
Labour Conference 2025 / 29 September 2025
29 September 2025

We cannot refuse to abolish the unjustifiable two-child benefit cap that pushes children into poverty while finding billions of pounds for defence spending — the membership and the public expect better from Labour, writes JON TRICKETT MP

The Canary Wharf skyline viewed through the haze from Alexandra Palace, north London
Features / 12 September 2025
12 September 2025

Climate justice and workers’ rights movements are uniting to make the rich pay for our transition to a green economy, writes assistant general secretary of PCS JOHN MOLONEY, ahead of a major demonstration on September 20