Childcare Bill

I was referring, of course, to the fact that the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole abstained in the vote on a similar amendment in Committee, and we all concluded that the Liberal Democrats were ambivalent about whether to reduce inequality. To return to the importance of clause 1, the Child Poverty Action Group reminds us:"““Inequality is damaging because access to goods and services of those on the lowest incomes is intimately connected and affected by the spending power of the richest. Unless the gap between incomes of the richest and poorest is reduced we will continue to be divided by differential, income-related access to the opportunities in society””." So it is terribly important—if we want to reduce inequalities, which Labour Members certainly do—that clause 1 stays exactly how it is, and we celebrate it. I was not going to make this point, but I am so incensed by the remarks of the hon. Member for Putney (Justine Greening) that I have decided that I need to say something about child poverty. Under the last Conservative Administration, childhood poverty in this country increased massively. At least this Government have started to take enormous numbers of children out of poverty. If you want, I will send you the figures, so that you know exactly how many children were put into poverty by the previous Government.