Gordon Brown has described child poverty as a scar on the soul of Britain. Outline and discuss the causes and consequences of growing child poverty in the UK, and critically assess the prospects of New Labours realising its ambition to abolish child poverty within a generation.

Poverty is among the measurements of inequality in society. In the past years, the political discussion has encouraged a superior definition of inequality, going beyond a financial categorisation and denoting to a more comprehensive disposition of including the entitlement to health and education as well as equal social involvement. To illustrate, the United Nations as well as other globally recognised organisations have demanded for the eradication of prejudice in opposition to children and the abolition of the racial inequity. Both of which are apparent forms of inequity. (UNFPA 2000; UN 2001; UNICEF 2002) Similarly, the European Union has authorised the purge of social exclusion as a component of it 1999 Treaty of Amsterdam….(short extract)