On the 21st of January 2019, I spoke in a debate on a recent report by the social metrics commission, which has developed a new measure of poverty. I was very pleased that this measure of poverty takes into account the total resources of an individual instead of simply focusing on income as many previous measures have.  This is why I have encouraged the Government to adopt this measure as their official measure of Poverty.

You can read my speech here and watch me speak on parliament live here.

“The measurement of poverty has for too long been a hot potato, with too much time being given to arguing about how and whether to measure poverty and not enough time devoted to taking action to reduce it … I hope that this measure is adopted by political parties and campaigners, but above all by the Government as their official measure of poverty, so that they can put in place meaningful policies to reduce poverty and address the plight of those who suffer from it.”