Former prime minister Gordon Brown accused both the Scottish and UK governments of failing to effectively tackle child poverty and ignoring what he described as “a national disgrace”. Brown said the problem had reached “epidemic proportions”.
The number of children living in poverty is set to increase to 5.2 million by 2022, up from around four million at present, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. A separate report commissioned by the Scottish Government and published in April shows a sharp rise in child poverty north of the border, with a projected increase of more than 100,000 by the mid-2020s.
He is due to say at the Edinburgh International Book Festival: “Kirkcaldy – where I grew up – now has the fifth worst area for child poverty in Scotland – and the worst outside Glasgow. In East Kirkcaldy 40% of children are in poverty but soon, on current projections, every second child – more than 50% – will be in poverty. This means that without remedial action the prospects for nearly half a generation of children are today in tatters, with Westminster and Holyrood governments shamefully ignoring this national disgrace and the silent suffering and sorrows of left-out millions – and simply hoping the children, and the numbers will remain invisible.”
An SNP spokesman said: “This is staggering hypocrisy from Gordon Brown, who lost the 2010 general election after Labour promised voters ‘deeper and tougher’ austerity than anything Margaret Thatcher imposed.
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