Baroness Sherlock (Lab)

My Lords, my noble friend mentioned the Children’s Commissioner. She will be aware that the Government commissioned the Children’s Commissioner to look at the experience of children in poverty. I am sure that, like me, she has read their comments, and they make for uncomfortable reading. But we cannot tackle child poverty in this country if we are not willing to look in the face the reality of the lives of our children. Importantly, having set up a Child Poverty Taskforce, the Government have pledged to look at the full range of the underlying causes of poverty and will continue to do that work. I reassure my noble friend that the Child Poverty Taskforce is continuing to look at all available levers to lift our children out of poverty. We are looking at everything, including social security measures, housing, education and health, and the Government will bring forward an ambitious child poverty strategy in the autumn. But I want to reassure her that the last Labour Government lifted the best part of 1 million kids out of poverty, and we have a manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty. The Prime Minister set up this task force very early in his time in office. We are determined to tackle this scourge in our country.