“One child living in poverty is too many but sadly, in Stockton on Tees over 14,000 children are living in below the poverty line. That’s 32.6 per cent of children in the borough – an increase of 7.1 percentage points since 2014/15. After thirteen years of Conservative Government, our area has seen child poverty increase by an alarming rate, with the North East region now top of the league tables in terms of child poverty in the country.
“Everyone should be ashamed of these statistics, not least the Conservative Party who while in Government have presided over this increase and implemented policies that have made children’s lives worse. Their rhetoric on “levelling up” rings hollow in the face of these figures.
“Children’s lives and potential are being held back by the political decisions of successive Conservative Governments. Time and again MPs and organisations like the End Child Poverty Coalition call on Ministers to take real action to tackle the scourge of child poverty, and time and again these calls fall on deaf ears. It doesn’t have to be this way – they need to act now.”
