Tories pushed 200,000 more children into poverty last year

The number of children living in absolute poverty across the UK has risen by 200,000 in a year, to a total of 3.7 million.

Responding to a government data release, Liberal Democrats MP Christine Jardine said:

"This government should be absolutely ashamed of itself for presiding over the first increase in absolute child poverty in six years.

"The main culprits - the benefits freeze, the arbitrary two-child limit, and huge cuts to Universal Credit - were policy decisions, not accidents. Yet what would normally be front-page news has been buried by the never ending chaos of Brexit.

"The Liberal Democrats refuse to let the Conservatives get away with destroying the life prospects of 200,000 innocent children.

"That is why we are calling for the full reversal of cuts to Universal Credit work allowances, the abolition of the cruel two-child limit, and the creation of a second earner's work allowance so that both parents in a couple are rewarded for work."