Churches across the country are displaying banners calling on party leaders to set out their plans to tackle poverty.
They've been created by the Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed churches alongside the Let’s End Poverty movement and Christian Aid.
Churches in the main party leaders' constituencies are among those taking part in the campaign and are displaying the banners which have the slogan ‘Let’s End Poverty in the UK and globally’. Camden Methodist Church and Bloomsbury Baptist Church are represented in Keir Starmer’s constituency of Holborn and St. Pancras, Kingston URC Church in Ed Davey’s constituency of Kingston and Surbiton and seven churches in Northallerton, in Rishi Sunak’s constituency of Richmond, Yorks.
The banners are being made available to all churches across the country.
Paul Morrison, policy advisor with the Joint Public Issues Team who support the Methodists, URC and Baptist Churches told Premier:
“We thought it was really important to have banners in the leaders constituencies because we think that poverty should be at the absolute heart of this election campaign, that it's not being talked about enough in the campaign and it needs to be because poverty is an issue that has been rising throughout the UK.
“One of the difficulties around talking about poverty at the moment is that it's been rolled into this issue of the cost of living crisis. For most of us, our budgets have got more difficult and that's just been a fact across the country. However, when we talk about poverty, we're talking about people at the real sharp end. And it's really important to recognise that in Britain, poverty has come to a turning point. So a million children in the UK experience destitution. That means going without food or the ability to wash or shelter for a period in a year and that was unheard of a decade ago.”
New research has also found that nearly one in three primary school teachers in England say more pupils are showing up to class hungry. 40 per cent of the 1200 teachers and senior leaders surveyed for the National Foundation for Educational Research also reported children coming to lessons without adequate clothing and more than three-quarters said they had personally bought items for students.
Paul Morrison added:
“We want to ask our political leaders what their plan is to deal with poverty. They should be forced to answer that question in this election campaign so we can judge whether they're giving sufficient priority.
“The tools to combat poverty are well understood, we know what needs to be done. What's required is the political will to do it.”
Churches of all denominations are invited to apply for a banner and get involved with the campaign.