[Image: Christopher Thomond/the Guardian].

The Trussell Trust – the UK’s biggest food bank charity – and the Labour Party say more than a million children in England could go hungry over the school summer holidays, while nearly four million more whose families are living in poverty may not be able to afford extra food costs.

And the IFS has already stated that the number of children in poverty could reach five million by 2020 – knocking into a cocked hat Tory claims that a fall in the number of children in jobless families means a fall in poverty, because “it always pays to be in work”.

Even in the face of this damning indictment, the Tories are still saying “employment is the best route out of poverty”.

It would be – but only if the Tories ensured that employers are paying a living wage, not their government’s silly version of it which only pays a fraction of the necessary amount.

This is from the Huffington Post report:

In response to a written question from shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, the government admitted it “has made no assessment of the number of children who are at risk of experiencing hunger during school summer holidays in 2017.”

“It is a national disgrace that millions of children across the country are at risk of going hungry this summer,” Rayner said.

“The government has admitted it has no plans to assist children who are facing hunger during the school holidays.

“The Conservatives are failing in their duty of care to children in poverty, whose numbers are increasing to Dickensian levels under Tory austerity.

“With the IFS forecasting that child poverty will rise to 5 million by 2022, Labour is demanding that the government brings forward a new strategy to tackle child poverty.”

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