Child poverty rates; my MP shoulds tell us the truth – Yorkshire Post Letters

FOLLOWING recent letters about Kevin Hollinrake’s regrettable comments regarding child poverty, I emailed him to ask if he could give me the numbers of children growing up in poverty in the Thirsk and Malton constituency for the five years between 2014 and 2019.

The reason for my interest resulted from Prime Minister’s Questions on November 1 when Boris Johnson claimed 400,000 children had been lifted out of poverty by the Conservative Government. He has made this claim before, despite the Office of the Children’s Commissioner having stated this was not true.

Supporting the Children’s Commissioner’s analysis, the data from End Child Poverty shows not a decrease but an increase in the number of children in poverty during the time in question in Thirsk and Malton.

When Kevin Hollinrake became our MP in 2015, 22.7 per cent of children were classed as living in poverty. By 2019 the figure was 25.7 per cent – one in four.

There has also been a large increase (43 per cent) in children eligible for free school meals and of food bank usage locally.

I understand that applications for emergency food parcels from the Thirsk Community Works (The Clock) have doubled during Mr Hollinrake’s tenure as our MP.

Just how these local figures square with the Prime Minister’s claim that child poverty has reduced nationally has not been explained by Mr Hollinrake.

From: Peter Rickaby, West Park, Selby.

POVERTY is a very emotive word, particularly when applied to children. York-based charity Joseph Rowntree Trust claims 32 per cent of children in our region live in “poverty”. But they never publicise the criteria to determine their interpretation 
of poverty.

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

WATCHING Sir Keir Starmer go over past history at Prime Minister’s Questions was painful viewing. He needed to get straight to the point over school meals but didn’t.

Is it because he doesn’t get it – he went to the University of Leeds – or is steeped in the same Islington mindset as his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn?

From: Henry Cobden, Ilkley.

MARCUS Rashford, let us know when you’re free to be Education Secretary.

Your country needs you.

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