Labour own goal on child poverty

IDS rounds on Opposition after they predicted a rise – but figure stays at lowest since 1980s

IAIN Duncan Smith yesterday taunted Labour for having ‘egg on their faces’ after official figures showed child poverty at its lowest level since the 1980s.

The Work and Pensions Secretary turned his fire on the party’s ‘friends on the Left’ in the media – including the BBC – who ‘ happily swallowed the Labour narrative’ that the total would increase.

It had been predicted by campaigners that child poverty would soar, and on Wednesday night, the BBC’s Newsnight devoted an entire section to the expected rise.

But in fact, it emerged yesterday that the number of children classed as living in relative poverty is 2.3million, the lowest level since Margaret Thatcher’s time in power.

The Department for Work and Pensions said the proportion of children in relative low-income households remained ‘ flat’ in 2013/14, at 17 per cent.

There had been speculation that the total, published annually, would increase to 2.5million, while a row had been brewing over whether the Government was planning to change the way the figure is measured.

The current definition of child poverty – brought in by Gordon Brown – is whether a child lives in a household with an income less than 60 per cent of the national average. This measure has been attacked even from within the Labour Party, with veteran MP Frank Field describing it as ‘dodgy’ this week. Ministers now intend to scrap it.

Labour was so confident that the latest figures would be bad news for the Government that they hauled Mr Duncan Smith before the Commons to answer an ‘urgent question’ on the issue.

But they were left red-faced after the figures were released yesterday morning. The Work and Pensions Secretary said: ‘The Opposition today have scored a massive own goal. They tabled this urgent question before the statistics came out.

‘So certain were they, and their friends on the Left, that the statistics would show a massive rise. They were wrong.

‘ They cannot accept our reforms of welfare, which they never did in their time, are working. The truth is they have egg all over their face today.’

Mr Duncan Smith accused Chris Leslie, the Shadow Chancellor, of ‘rank hypocrisy’.

‘They comprehensively failed themselves to meet their own targets despite dumping huge sums of money into the welfare system,’ he said. ‘Our fundamental belief is the most powerful way to change lives is to create a welfare system that makes work pay, writes no one off and supports people into work.’

Mr Duncan Smith’s team is particularly annoyed with the BBC’s reporting in advance of the figures. On the Six O’Clock News on Wednesday, one reporter said: ‘Official figures tomorrow are expected to show a sharp rise in child poverty as cuts to benefits hit low income households.’

A source close to Mr Duncan Smith said the BBC’s coverage had been ‘outrageous’, adding: ‘It is a classic case of the BBC being the echo chamber of the Left.

‘ They are so anti- welfare reform that they didn’t even think to question the Institute for Fiscal Studies predictions, instead they happily swallowed the Labour narrative.’ The IFS had forecast a rise in child poverty to 2.5million.

The source added: ‘Iain believes the Left have completely lost the argument on welfare reform and tackling poverty.

‘They think the answer to poverty is more spending on benefits – hence the out of control welfare spend under Labour.’

The DWP said that in 2013/14, the average real terms household income before housing costs remained unchanged from 2012/13 at £453 a week. Income after housing costs was also unchanged, at £386.

THE Left-wing trade unions were primed to go into full, outraged attack mode. The shroud-waving BBC had its microphones at the ready. Labour was so confident the Government’s ‘cruel’ welfare cuts had increased child poverty that it requested an Urgent Question in the Commons.

How devastated they were, then, when figures released yesterday showed that UK poverty levels were the ‘lowest since the mid-1980s’.

As the Mail and Iain Duncan Smith have long argued, the measure itself – dreamed up by Labour – is fatally flawed.

But, by any yardstick, the Welfare Secretary’s reforms – built on the noble belief that work should always pay – are a success. Labour’s continued failure to acknowledge this fact shows it has learned nothing from May’s electoral hammering.