Westminster Column 3 February 2010
03 February 2010
Last week’s report from the National Equality Panel contained numerous damning statistics, but perhaps the most shocking was this: under Labour inequality has risen to its highest level since the Second World War.
Using internationally accepted measures of inequality, the report found that the gap between rich and poor has not only grown under Labour but is now at its highest level for over 60 years. The report found inequality in the UK to be amongst the highest in the developed world.
Social mobility has stalled under this Government. This has not been because of a lack of desire but because of misguided policy. Rather than tackling the root causes of poverty they have focused merely on masking its effects through the use of tax credits. This one-dimensional approach has failed and child poverty is now rising. Research this week from Save the Children found that child poverty was rising even before the recession to the extent that 13% of the UK’s children are now living in severe poverty.
Clearly tackling poverty ought to be a priority for any government. The effects of poverty on children are particularly worrying.
Allowing the rich and the poor to become steadily separated from each other runs entirely against the grain of the Conservative Party. If one part of our country is left behind then none of us can truly move forward. That, after all was the great Conservative contribution of “One Nation” politics which Benjamin Disraeli bequeathed to the Conservative Party. That is why we have set out a range of policies to tackle the causes of poverty and inequality, which include worklessness, educational failure, family breakdown, debt and drug and alcohol addictions. Only by tackling these root causes we can reverse the worrying trends that have been exposed this week.
