Speeches by Johnson.

“I want every person who wants to work, who should be in work, to have that opportunity. As you will know, another big problem is that we have too many young people who are not in employment, education or training. The Government have a big offer in the youth guarantee. For those young people, again, we are not prepared…”

“We always keep benefits under review. You will know, for example, that we brought in the largest ever increase above inflation for the standard allowance of universal credit. We have changed the rules on repayments as well—we have reduced the repayments that can be taken from UC. We are always looking at ways to make w…”

“May I come in first? One thing that I am very conscious about is single parents. We know that single-parent households are more likely to be in poverty than those with two adults. I am very conscious, particularly in the employment space—we want people to be in work, because we know that good work is good for you—of ch…”

“It is clear that children in families where nobody is in work are four times more likely to be in poverty. We work on the basis that getting people into work is a good thing. It is good for children, for the family, for the taxpayer and for the British economy. There have obviously been increases in the number of singl…”

“Perhaps it played a part, but I am sure those of us who were in Parliament from 2010 onwards remember the dreadful years of austerity, which I think actually played a much bigger part in 700,000 children being added to the number of children living in poverty. Over the past number of years, various things have happened…”

“One advantage of the taskforce was the co-production with the voluntary and community sector, charities and key stakeholders. Liv and I are really keen that we keep that relationship going and have that challenge from the sector, so that we are held to account by it as well; that is very important. At the last intermin…”

“Obviously, previous Governments took decisions about their policies, and I can’t answer for what was in the minds of Conservative or Liberal Democrat politicians in those years from 2010 onwards. All I can say is that this Labour Government is committed to doing something about child poverty. Our economic inheritance h…”

“Absolutely. We welcome any scrutiny and we want to be held accountable. Elaine might want to go into what exactly is going to be published, so that you are clear on that. I am also sure that the Children’s Commissioners in all the nations will want to be very much looking at how this strategy is implemented and whether…”

“I know that the officials in the DWP and the Home Office are working very closely together. Clearly, the child poverty strategy is a whole-Government strategy.”

“I do not think we are in a position today to say what policies are going to finally come out of the Home Office in terms of, say, settlement, because that is a live policy issue. All we can reassure you of is that there is input from the interministerial group and input from officials, from the child poverty strategy a…”

“I am Diana Johnson, the Minister for Employment in the Department for Work and Pensions. I co-chair the interministerial group with Liv.”

“You are absolutely right: that was one of the last pieces of legislation that the previous Labour Government brought forward. In fact, I was talking to Stephen Timms, the Minister who took that forward, and there were targets in that legislation, as you rightly say. Of course, we had a change of Government and the targ…”

“You will know that in the Labour manifesto that we were elected on in 2024, we had a clear commitment to tackling child poverty, and within a few weeks of coming into government, the Prime Minister set up the child poverty taskforce. You have rightly highlighted one of the headline figures, which has been discussed a l…”

“The taskforce looked at how it could do that and how it could make sure we did not just deal with the children it might be easiest to move just over the line, but drilled down to those most disadvantaged children. We have two headline measures. One is relative low income after housing costs, which is the universally ac…”

“Perhaps I could say one thing about Scotland to start us off. You are absolutely right that Scotland does have targets, which, as I understand it, they have failed to meet in every year that they have had targets. I think it was just a week or so ago that they decided to review the whole area of targets around child po…”

“I wonder if James wants to come in at this point.”

“The taskforce met for 15 or 16 months, looked at all the evidence and weighed up the best way to make sure that we had a strategy that was going to deliver. James has set out some of the discussions that were had and how we will capture what we do that will have the most effect on children. Using a very narrow target, …”

“On the devolved nations, we as Ministers have been working with our counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, wanting to understand and hear about what they are doing, respecting, obviously, the devolution settlement. They know best what to do for their communities and local populations. We may be about to …”

“I am really pleased that we have so many organisations and bodies in this country that care about child poverty and want to support the Government in bringing about its reduction. The strategy has set out the approach that we are going to take. It is worth saying that, across the board, if you talk to any of the Minist…”

“The Government have a statutory responsibility every, I think, five years to consider the benefit cap. I think that is coming up next in ’27. On the benefit cap, you will know that this Government take the view that we want to incentivise people to work. We want to say that we expect people to be in work. The benefit c…”