Conservative MPs should hang their heads in shame for failing the North East’s young people, says Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham in response to two recent damning reports.
Recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found that 1.8 million households, totalling around 3.8 million people have experienced destitution in 2022. Of the 3.8 million, one million are children. The North East ranks second highest after London with 1.13 per cent of all household experiencing destitution.
These findings come on the back of BBC analysis that almost one in five of the individuals who applied for, and were due, homeless support from their local council in the North East last year were aged 18-24.
The North East region also had the steepest rise in child poverty levels, with the region with the highest levels of child poverty. Middlesbrough constituency has a 48.7 per cent rate of child poverty. In Stockton North the figure is 33.9 per cent.
Alex said:
“The Conservatives have completely failed our young people. Rather than “level up” our region, they’ve presided over a shameful increase in child poverty, forced families towards the poverty line, and left young people without access to secure housing.
“Every single Tory MP in our region should hang their heads in shame at their record of abject failure when it comes to our young people.”