Robinson on the march against child poverty

10.32.18pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 7th Oct 2008

Stephen Robinson, Ann Haigh and other Liberal Democrats prepare to set off on the march against child poverty

The national campaign to end child poverty was joined last Saturday by Chelmsford Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Stephen Robinson. He took part in a campaign march to a rally in Trafalgar Square to back the aim of abolishing child poverty by 2020.

Stephen Robinson said, "Child poverty is a blight on our society. In Chelmsford, it affects at least 6,000 families. Amazingly, for the first time ever, there are now more children living in poverty in working households than in unemployed households.

"It used to be true that if you worked hard, you could give your family a good life. Sadly, this is no longer true in Gordon Brown's Britain. The number of people living in poverty is going up.

"To help hard-pressed families, the Liberal Democrats have a three point plan: (1) cut national and local taxes (the basic rate of income tax down by one-fifth [from 20% to 16%] and abolish the unfair council tax); (2) increase spending in our schools for those who need it most, and (3) tackle poor housing, which shows a persistent link with poverty.

"This is radical package of measures from the only party in politics today really committed to social justice. Labour have fiddled at the edges of the tax and benefits system; they can't be relied upon to solve the problem and the Conservatives won't solve the problem."