Labour MP for Regent's Park and North Kensington, Karen Buck, hailed by Child Poverty Action Group

Published: 9 April 2010
BY TOM FOOT

KAREN Buck has been named Child Poverty Action Group MP of the Year while serving as Labour MP for Regent’s Park and North Kensington. 

Ms Buck – who will be fighting the new Westminster North seat at the election – was chosen from a shortlist of five parliamentarians who have supported the interests of children from low-income families. 

She won because of her work on the welfare reform and child poverty bills and her campaigning during last year’s budget talks.

“I was honoured to receive this award, especially from an organisation that is so dedicated to keeping the cause of inequality and child poverty in the public eye,” she said. “There is a real danger in the current climate that we go back to the days of blaming people for their own poverty. We must stay focused on the need for good jobs, decent pay, fair benefits for those who cannot work, quality childcare and family support, and I am proud to champion these causes.”

Ms Buck warned the Welfare Reform Bill would push work-related requirements onto lone parents before necessary support and childcare was in place. At the committee stage of the Child Poverty Bill she won a commitment to strengthen the childcare requirements any future government must produce and implement.

CPAG chief executive Shan Nicholas said: “We  will need many more child poverty champions like Karen after the election if the goal of eradicating child poverty by 2020 is to succeed.”