CHILD POVERTY FUNDING

That this House notes with disbelief that paragraph 5.13 of the Budget Red Book, at page 91, reports that Budget 2009 builds on progress in reducing child poverty, and sets out the next steps for supporting vulnerable groups through the downturn and then announces that `to further help low-to-middle-income families, the child element of the child tax credit will increase by an additional £20 a year above indexation from April 2010 providing valuable support to families with children'; believes that such a paltry rise, amounting to just 38.4 pence per week, is an insult to the poor; contrasts this with the £200 billion plus made available to support the failed banks and the £76 billion cost of building and operation of a replacement for the Trident nuclear weapons of mass destruction system; recalls that the Prime Minister stated in his speech to the Labour Party Conference in Manchester on 23 September 2008 that `because child poverty demeans Britain, we have committed our party to tackle to end it', and announced his intention to introduce ground-breaking legislation to enshrine in law Labour's pledge to end child poverty; and therefore calls on the Government to uphold its pledge to abolish child poverty and to make resources available by cancelling all plans to replace Trident and place the current Trident system into international multilateral nuclear arms abolition negotiations.