Lone Parent Employment

: I shall try to respond to the key issues that have been raised in the debate, but I start by saying that I do not think that we could have had a debate of this nature eight or nine years ago. I want to retain the atmosphere that we have enjoyed this afternoon. The hon. Member for Daventry (Mr. Boswell) has said that he does not want to wage a war on lone parents, and I really welcome that. I remember with horror how the right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr. Lilley), when he was Secretary of State for Social Security, did just that at a Conservative party conference sometime in the '80s. I tend to think of 1997 as year zero in some respects, because as somebody who has worked in public life for more than 30 years, what I found most difficult when I entered Parliament and most challenging when I became a Minister was the legacy of child poverty that we inherited. The divisions that were created during the preceding 20 years, leading to one in three of our children growing up in relative or absolute poverty, were outrageously awful. Many of them were the result from the war that was waged on the poorest, among whom I include lone parents. In that context, I am delighted by the change of atmosphere and the approach that the hon. Member for Daventry reflects as a spokesman for the Conservative party. I am delighted also that there is a consensus about the complexity of the issues with which we are dealing. There appears to be a consensus of ambition: that trying to help lone parents and their children out of poverty by creating opportunities for work through active labour market policies is a legitimate role for the Government, and one that we should try to pursue.