CONSERVATIVES MUST OWN UP TO PAST POVERTY TRACK RECORD

Conservative leader David Cameron's claim at his Party’s Conference that 'it was not the 'wicked Tories' who had made 'the poorest poorer' and made inequality greater' since 1979, is contradicted by independent information from the House of commons Library.

Stafford’s Labour MP David Kidney says that this independent information shows that the Conservative leader is deluding himself:

"The most obvious change in poverty in modern times has been a massive rise in the 1980’s caused by the sharp increase in relative low income rates.

“This has been described as 'one of the biggest social changes in Britain since the Second World War'. The Library figures show that from 1961 until the end of the 1970s the proportion of children and of the population as a whole living in households below 60 per cent of median income remained broadly stable. But from around 1980 the rates increased sharply.

“Between 1979 and the early 1990s the proportion of children in households below the 60 per cent threshold more than doubled.

“In contrast, under Labour there has been a steady reduction in poverty, although this progress has been put into reverse since the onset of the recession.

"Labour has demonstrated its determination to get back on target in reducing child poverty with a commitment in the Child Poverty Bill to eradicate all child poverty within a generation.

"The Tory Leader is not facing up to the reality of his Party's policies in the 80's.  It is therefore very difficult to believe he and his Party have changed as he claims.”