Children deliver ‘end child poverty’ plea to Tony Blair
21.12.05

Children from across the country personally delivered a Christmas message to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street today urging him to do more to end child poverty in the UK.

The children, who come from a range of backgrounds, delivered the plea on behalf of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), which was formed forty years ago this week when its founding members delivered a letter to the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

CPAG’s original letter on 23 December 1965 said that half a million children lived in hardship and urged Harold Wilson to take action “to achieve a radical improvement in the standard of living of families in poverty.” The charity’s updated plea says that, “forty Christmases have come and gone, but still millions of children are growing up in poverty.”

The letter continues:

Your Government has made good progress and set out an ambitious timetable to eradicate child poverty by 2020, but on behalf of the 3.5 million children still living in poverty we say: ‘not another forty years’. Prime Minister, please make sure that in forty years time CPAG do not have to make another plea for another generation of children. This Christmas remember the millions of children who are still not getting the best start in life. And remember just how much more needs to be done to meet your historic pledge to end child poverty once and for all by 2020.

Kate Green, Chief Executive of CPAG, said: "I’m delighted that the children were able to meet the Prime Minister today. As an organisation we can lobby MPs and Ministers to do more to tackle child poverty, but that message is all the more powerful when it comes from families who are themselves struggling to make ends meet.”

The Prime Minister invited the children and their families in to Downing Street where they were given a short tour, including a special visit to the Cabinet Room.

Notes to Editors:
Pictures are available on request from the CPAG Press Office, from the Press Association or from Reuters.

For further information please contact:
Alex Belardinelli
CPAG Press Officer
Tel. 020 7812 5216 or 07816 909302
abelardinelli@cpag.org.uk