Big Issue founder Lord John Bird renews his calls for a new Whitehall department – focused solely on eradicating poverty in Britain – in an interview with The Mirror
Big Issue founder Lord John Bird has said he came into Parliament with a mission to “dismantle poverty”.
The crossbench peer made the comment as he renewed his call for a new Whitehall department – focused solely on eradicating poverty in Britain. Speaking to The Mirror, Lord Bird, 79, who was born in a Notting Hill slum, said it should be the “ministry of poverty prevention and cure”.
He said: “Since the Second World War – the creation of the welfare state – we have not had a government department which is solely concerned with getting rid of poverty”.
He described the work of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as an “emergency department” – rather than focusing on getting rid of poverty. He explained: “It’s not a department that says ‘OK, how can we prevent the inheritance of poverty – how can we break the John Anthony Birds of today and tomorrow’.
“How can we get rid of all these people that through poverty end up in the prison system? How can we do something about reducing the ridiculous amount of people being banged up because a lot of them… are there because of poverty.”
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Lord Bird, who founded Big Issue with Gordon Roddick in 1991, also reiterated his demand for concrete government targets on child poverty. It comes after the government published a major child poverty strategy earlier in December – with a blueprint to lift over 550,000 kids out of poverty.
This includes expanding free school meals and scrapping the two-child benefit limit, which has been blamed for trapping children in poverty. The government will also end the “unlawful placement” of families being forced to stay in Bed and Breakfasts beyond the six week limit with an £8million emergency fund.
But Lord Bird said the government must go further with legally binding targets on poverty – in a similar fashion to the duty placed on government through the net zero law.
In the New Year he will attempt to force the government’s hand by pushing his amendment on the issue on the Children’s Wellbeing and School Bill again in the Lords. He told The Mirror: “We’ve done it already – but we’re going to have another go.”
The peer described the targets as “KPIs – Key Performance Indicators” to mark the government’s homework on the issue and measure improvements. “It passes over to you and me the chance to say how well is this government doing – rather than relying on chit-chat on breakfast TV,” he added.
Pressed on whether the issue was a personal mission for him, he replied: “I’ve been agitating and advocating since I came into Parliament because if you see my maiden speech, I was very, very clear: I am here to dismantle poverty. I’m not here to keep the poor comfortable. I’m not here to postpone our children ever getting the quality of life because they have been born into poverty.
“But the thing is you’re living in a world where you’ve got to get concessions for the poorest amongst us because if you don’t the quality of their life is even worse. I’m looking for concessions in the same way as any person who works in poverty.”
A government spokeswoman said: “This Government is tackling the cost of living and poverty head on, increasing the national living wage – worth £900 a year from next year for a full-time worker – and taking £150 off average energy bills from April, giving low-income families the support they need.
“However we know we must do more, which is why we are tackling poverty at the root cause, removing the two child limit and introducing a wider package of measures that will bring 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030, alongside the biggest employment reforms in a generation to drive opportunity and boost living standards across the country.”