'Hardship facing poor children is a stain on the soul of our country'

Look into the eyes of the youngest Britons, and it'll quickly become apparent there's a crisis depriving them of not just basic necessities like clothes and medical care - but most tragically hope.

A secondary school pupil in Liverpool brings an empty lunch box to school every day trying to fit in, and a teacher taking notice filling it with food only for her not to touch it and bring it home to her hungry siblings.

An aspiring footballer turns up for training at Blackburn Football Club hiding the boots he is playing in because the soles are riddled with holes.

A child in Fife sleeps on the sofa one night in three as he and his two brothers take turns trading the comfort of the small couch for the discomfort of a cold, hard floor.

A teenager in Swansea, who has only ever received second-hand clothes her entire life, gets a new pair of trainers for the first time and can't shake the feeling she has been living a second-hand life.

Gordon Brown, pictured with Labour's Deputy Leader Angela Rayner

Even at an age when their whole life is in front of them and they should be able to dream of a successful future ahead, all these young people have been drained of hope .

And while their stories are unlikely to make the front page of any newspaper, these are the increasingly common stories gripping Britain - a poverty crisis that has been creeping up and is now careening upwards.

I've heard stories like these travelling around Britain, a reminder that poverty is the most urgent social issue facing the country with 4.2 million children condemned to abject poverty

In 2010 when the Conservatives came to power there were 35 food banks in the UK, Now there are 2,600 and there are not just food banks and food larders, community kitchens and pantries now but clothes banks, hygiene banks, bedding banks, furniture banks, baby banks an multi-banks.

But more needs to be done. Tonight and every night, one million children have no bed of their own on which to sleep.

Three million children are skipping meals due to lack of food. Almost one child in every three across our country is officially in poverty.

Nearly six million children who don’t have an adequate standard of living are left behind and missing out because they lack the money to join in the activities their school friends do.

Their fates are tied to the stocks of food banks which are themselves now struggling to meet their needs.

Their hardships are a stain on the soul of our country and the sorrows of these millions of desolate children will remain forever a scar on our country’s conscience unless something is done.

Going around the country, I have seen houses without heating, bedrooms without beds, kitchens without kitchen utensils, floors without floor coverings, and even toilets without toilet rolls. And I see charities and food banks struggling to cope - short of cash as generous donors who have given a little to those who have nothing find they are out of cash

This summer, with schools on holiday, thousands of children will spend their weeks out of school without enough nutrition at breakfast or lunch. And even during term time, 800,000 children who are officially poor are deemed not poor enough to be offered free school meals.

And look at how divided by poverty and inequality Britain is in 2024. Food banks - and not the welfare state - are now the principal safety net for the poor. Charity, not Universal Credit, is the last point of call for those facing destitution. And this year is actually worse than Covid or the heating crisis years.

For in March, we saw the end of emergency payments, and September will see the end of the household support fund - the last line of defense against destitution.

Britain is better than this. That’s why Labour is committed to a root and branch review of the Universal Credit system that has produced the two-child rule, the bedroom tax, the benefits cap, the housing benefit limit, and the deductions taken every month from half its claimants - deductions for loans that have to be taken out in the transition to Universal Credit and now make the Department of Work and Pensions the biggest debt collector in the country .

Every child deserves the best start in life and every department of government should be a children's department - from education, and social security to housing, transport, and local government and that’s why some months ago I and others proposed a £1billion children’s fund to fund services from a revived Sure Start for the under fives and breakfast clubs to youth spaces, multi-banks and educational maintenance allowance

For fourteen years, children's support has gone into reverse. It's time now to say that instead of developing only some of the potential of some children in some parts of the country, we will develop all of the potential of all children in all parts of the country.

At a time of profound political division, that’s something we all can get behind.