LABOUR must act more urgently to combat the North’s huge levels of child poverty now, experts have warned.

As Sir Keir Starmer prepared to address the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, the Government was told that rapid action is required to stop thousands more children being born into destitution.

More than 118,000 children are already living in poverty across Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham, a situation described by Redcar MP Anna Turley on Tuesday as a clear “crisis” driven by low pay and insecure work.

READ MORE: Every child in North East could receive free school meals, says mayor

The Labour whip, a former chair of the North East Child Poverty Commission, told a Health Equity North fringe event that almost one in five children in the North East live in households that are food insecure and seven in 10 in families have little or no savings to protect them against sudden expenditures, like replacing a broken boiler. That left those children more likely to die before the age of one, miss school, suffer mental health problems, and be placed into care.

While the Government has launched a new child poverty task force and Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed this week that new school breakfast clubs would be rolled out from next April, Labour has faced a major backlash for refusing to lift the two-child benefit limit – a move that campaigners say would lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty if it were enacted. 

Ms Turley said she hoped the breakfast club's pledge would be only a “first step” in a much larger drive from the new Government, adding: “There is a huge amount of things I want us to do and we are not doing everything we would like to do. We know the fiscal situation, but if we want to grow the economy and get the best out of our children and young people then we have to invest in children and break down the barriers they face in childhood.

“Tackling child poverty is at the heart of that and I hope to do everything I can to make that happen.”

She said: “We know the two-child limit is a key driver. We know welfare benefits have been frozen for too long. We know low pay is a big driver of this, particularly in the North East. I would love to see universal free school meals. There are lots of things I would love us to do.”

For households with at least one parent in work, the number of kids living in poverty in the North East increased from 83,400 in 2010 to 119,900 in 2023 – a rise of 44 per cent, according to analysis from the TUC.

Prof David Taylor-Robinson, an expert in child health inequalities at the University of Liverpool, recounted stories of children turning up to school without food or shoes and of parents terminating wanted pregnancies because they could not afford the cost of another child.

He said that there was a “real urgency to act now”, instead of waiting for the recommendations of the new task force co-chaired by education secretary Bridget Phillipson which will “outline exactly what we already know”.

The Government has also faced calls to expand the provision of free school meals to all children in state schools, something already offered in London and which North East mayor Kim McGuinness has said she wants to explore.

Journalist and campaigner Terri White spoke passionately at Tuesday’s (September 24) panel about her own experience of growing up in poverty and said every vulnerable child growing up in destitution deserves to “feel love from the state” and to have their basic human rights met.

She added: “Having a long-term strategy is vital, but the idea that these kids should be patient and can wait is offensive. Every day is a torture you can’t imagine.”

Prof Kate Pickett, academic co-director at Health Equity North, said: “Everything we want to do is cheap in the grand scheme of things. We know the Government has uncovered a worse state in the financial picture than expected, but they keep telling us there is no magic money tree. There really is – it is wealth which could be taxed. You could choose to do that and liberate the funding to do all the things we want to do to ensure children’s wellbeing now and in the future.

“The choices this Government makes will impact things profoundly and I am worried that we will be here in four or five years’ time and, unless those policies are enacted, we won’t have moved forward.”

Speaking on Monday (September 23), Ms Reeves described the rollout of free breakfast clubs to an initial 750 primary schools from next April ahead of a national expansion as “an investment in our young people, an investment in reducing child poverty, an investment in our economy”.

In the North East, Ms McGuinness is setting up a child poverty reduction unit and has pledged to introduce a childcare grant to support parents trying to get back into the workplace.

A Labour spokesperson added: “Child poverty is a scar on our country, which holds back children’s lives and life chances at home, in school and across our communities. That is why tackling child poverty is a top priority for this government.

“The scale of the challenge cannot be overstated. That is why this Government’s Child Poverty taskforce will work across Government, is essential to ensure all departments are supporting and delivering on our mission of breaking down the barriers to opportunity for every child.  

“We will take action in every department, with a comprehensive strategy to drive down poverty and drive up opportunity, building a better future for us all.”