Clegg speech causes deep concern for child poverty campaigners

18.08.10

Commenting on the speech today on social mobility by the Deputy Prime Minster, Nick Clegg, the Head of Policy Rights and Advocacy for Child Poverty Action Group, Imran Hussain, said:

“Social mobility is a snakes and ladders game with winners and losers. But it is not enough to have a few more escape ladders from disadvantaged communities when we need to be ending disadvantage for whole communities. This means targeting entrenched structural problems like Britain’s economic dependency on poverty pay jobs, about which we heard nothing today.

“Social mobility is an outcome of fairness in the good society. But when social mobility itself becomes the target, we are driven away from moral politics and into a technocratic dead-end.

“It is deeply concerning that Nick Clegg failed to mention the Government’s child poverty targets today. He has overlooked the evidence that developed countries with the greatest social mobility are those with the lowest inequality and the lowest child poverty. In a fairer and more equal society for all in which child poverty is a thing of the past, social mobility will always follow.”

Notes for editors

• Child Poverty Action Group’s manifesto, published in March 2009, can be found at: www.cpag.org.uk/manifesto
• For up-to-date background facts and stats on UK poverty, visit: www.cpag.org.uk/povertyfacts/
• CPAG is one of over 150 member organisations of the Campaign to End Child Poverty, campaigning for public and political commitment to ensure the goals of halving child poverty by 2010 and ending child poverty by 2020 are met.

For further information please contact:
Tim Nichols
CPAG Press Officer
Tel. 020 7812 5216 or 07816 909302 
tnichols@cpag.org.uk