Rushanara Ali MP has blasted Tory Ministers during Treasury Questions for their failure to tackle child poverty as well as their complacency in insisting that the measure of child poverty should instead be redefined.

With more than half of children growing up in poverty in Bethnal Green and Bow, Rushanara warned Ministers that the Government’s tax increases and welfare cuts would push one million more children into poverty across the UK by 2020, and the Government has been forced to admit that changes announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Autumn Statement would push 200,000 children into poverty.

Rushanara said: “Over 50% of children in my constituency are living in poverty. With the Child Poverty Action Group warning that this Government’s tax and benefit changes will push one million children into poverty by 2020, why did the Minister and his Department decide not to publish a child poverty impact assessment alongside the Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill?”.

Instead of addressing the question as to why no child poverty impact assessment was published, Tory Treasury Minister Sajid Javid MP said that child poverty should be measured in a different way.

Following Treasury Questions, Rushanara said:

“It is deeply worrying that this out of touch Government has chosen to bury its head in the sand over the huge increase in child poverty forecast under its watch. Labour lifted almost a million children out of poverty, while this government’s actions will reverse that achievement.”