Gordon Brown and Angela Rayner say Labour will "pioneer" slashing child poverty

Gordon Brown says a Keir Starmer Labour government would be a “pioneer” for slashing child poverty rates across the UK. The former prime minister said he believed a Labour win next week will be a “landmark” for struggling kids and their families.

In a joint interview with deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, he said: “I would appeal to Record readers to come out and vote. The vote does matter this time. We have had enough of Conservatives running this country.”

Brown was chancellor and prime minister during 13 years of government from 1997. He helped take millions of children and pensioners out of poverty with the minimum wage, tax credits for people on low incomes and Sure Start centres for parents.

Rayner, who is likely to have the role of strengthening workers’ rights in a Starmer government, was a teenage mum during the Brown and Tony Blair years. Sitting with Brown in St Bryce Kirk, Kirkcaldy, where the ex-PM’s late father was the minister, she told of the impact his government had on her.

She said: “My mum was ­illiterate and had mental health problems, and I didn’t know how to be a mum. Sure Start was incredible. I went on a parenting course and learned for the first time that the way I parented my son wasn’t bringing out the best in him. That has ­transformed my life and my son’s life because the relationship I have with him is incredible.”

She added: “The last Labour government, and Gordon in particular, brought in the child tax credits which enabled me to go to work and provide me with a career. I wouldn’t be sat here today without those opportunities. Having a government that felt like it was on your side felt incredibly powerful for me and my friends.

“Before that, we were reliant on guys – the male role model [where] they go out to work, we look after the children. It transformed our lives and gave us the opportunity to be the mums that our mums were not given the opportunity to be.”

She added: “There was a ceiling for my mum in terms of what she was able to deliver for me. Gordon’s government gave me the opportunity to be a better mum, to work, have dignity and self-respect.”

“The humiliation, the fear, the feeling of failure, that’s what the Tories have given working people today. That’s what I find unforgivable.”

Brown says the last Labour government’s policies helped raise millions out of poverty and a new Labour government can do the same. He said: “It was all part of a comprehensive idea that every child should have the best possible start in life.”

He claims the Tories scrapped many of the ­policies from 2010 onwards, saying: “That’s why now we’ve got 4.2million children in poverty. We had 35 food banks in Britain in 2010, now there are 2600.”

Brown said of Scotland in 2024: “I never thought I would see the kind of poverty we are seeing again. You have got mothers who have to queue up at a food bank at the end of a week after working full-time because there is not enough money to make ends meet.

“You’ve got parents having to choose between heating, eating and keeping their ­children clean. And you have got children going to school hungry. That should not be happening in Britain in 2024.

“Fortunately, there’s a chance of a new government coming in to make a difference. And with Angela’s experience of knowing what it’s like to see things changing, we can see things changing again.

“It makes you weep when you see children being denied things that other children have and therefore they are left out, they are left behind, they are stigmatised.”

Brown continued: “This next Labour government, if it’s elected next Thursday, has a chance to be a landmark in turning the tide against child poverty, which is just so big now. It is the biggest cause of social division.”

Rayner agreed and said of Labour’s commitment to tackling child poverty: “It’s incredibly personal. I think it is a moral mission. We are going to have a Child Poverty Unit and we’re going to make sure it’s not just one lever, or it’s not just one person’s responsibility, it will be the responsibility of the whole cabinet.”

Brown said of his hopes for a Starmer government: “It could be a pioneer for a 21st century approach to dealing with the potential of every child being realised.”

He added: “I would appeal to people that haven’t normally voted to come out and vote this time because this election can make a huge difference to the future of our country.”

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