PM 'abandoned' child poverty pledge

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Martin Narey, chief executive of the children's charity Barnardo's, said anti-poverty campaigners had been led by ministers to expect that the PBR would make progress towards that target.

However, writing in the New Statesman magazine, Mr Narey said that aim appeared to have fallen by the wayside as the Government moved to "steal the Tories' clothes" over inheritance tax.

"All the signs are that our hope for some investment from the October 9 Pre-Budget Report fell victim to a more urgent need: to slash inheritance tax, ensuring that some of the richest children in the UK would be richer still in years to come," he said.

"For millions of poor children, this is a tragedy. Tony Blair's pledge to halve child poverty by 2010 was one of the most moving and inspiring commitments made in the optimistic days after 1997.

"With this year's PBR, it was abandoned. And nobody cares."