John McDonnell to promise Labour will end 'in-work poverty' by end of first term

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, is to make a promise that Labour will eliminate the “modern-day scourge” of in-work poverty by the end of the party’s first full term back in office.

In a speech on Wednesday, the shadow chancellor will pledge to eradicate poverty among those who are working but struggle to support themselves and their families on low wages.

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He is due to set out his party’s plans in a speech at the launch of the Resolution Foundation’s Living Standards Audit, as both the major parties start preparing policies for a possible general election under a new Conservative leader.

Attacking the Tories for promising to help “social mobility”, he will say: “Behind the concept of social mobility is the belief that poverty is OK as long as some people are given the opportunity to climb out of it, leaving the others behind.

“I reject that completely, and want to see a society with higher living standards for everyone as well as one in which nobody lacks the means to survive or has to choose between life’s essentials.”

He will call for a “structurally different economy, a social safety net of shared public service provision, and of course a financial safety net as well”.

“Without any one of these three elements, we will not be able to achieve the sustained eradication of poverty, the dramatic narrowing of inequality, and the transformation of people’s lives that will be the central purpose of the next Labour government.

“The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said last year that in-work poverty is the problem of our times. I am committing today to ending this modern-day scourge to eliminating in-work poverty by the end of Labour’s first full parliamentary term.

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“As chancellor in the next Labour government, I want you to judge me by how much we reduce poverty and how much we create a more equal society. By how much people’s lives change for the better. Because that is our number one goal.”

The Resolution Foundation report will reveal that UK households have experienced slower income growth over the last two years than in the aftermath of the early 1990s recession, and the weakest growth outside of recessions since records began in 1961.

In response to McDonnell’s pledge, Claire Ainsley, the director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), an organisation pushing for social change, said it was “unacceptable that more working families are being swept into poverty, so this significant ambition to eliminate in-work poverty is the right thing to do”.

“With more working families unable to make ends meet, people are frustrated at the failure of politics to unlock the jobs, investment and opportunities needed so their families and local economies can thrive,” she said.