Child poverty

Wednesday

Tim Shipman

PMQs: at least Kemi is enjoying herself

15 min listen

It was PMQs today and it is clear to see that Kemi Badenoch is starting to enjoy herself. She opened with the departure of the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), as it allowed her to suggest that Starmer was dodging taking responsibility himself. She asked: ‘Does the Prime Minister believe that when an organisation descends into total shambles, the person at the top should resign?’ To be fair, she has lots of ammunition between the leaks, botched Budgets and Cabinet discontent – however, the leader of the opposition does seem to be hitting her stride just at the moment when the Tories are enjoying a modest bump

Monday

Stephen Daisley

Nicola Sturgeon reinvents herself as a social democrat. Again

It’s the surest sign there’s an election on in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon has become a social democrat again. Addressing her party’s spring conference today, the SNP leader vowed to double the Scottish child payment to £10 per week for under-16s in low-income families if the Nationalists are returned to government after 6 May. She explained:  ‘I want to make ending child poverty a driving mission for the next parliament. It is time to end the scandal of child poverty, and this will help us do it. And it is a down payment of what will be possible when we have the full powers over tax and social security that only