UN investigator says that poverty in Britain is the result of political choice

A UN envoy said the British government could do more to help the country’s poorest residents, during a nationwide tour looking at inequality in one of the world’s richest countries.

During a visit to Clacton and Jaywick on the Essex coastline, Philip Alston said that a wealthy country allowing its people to slip below the poverty line was “a political choice”.

Mr Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, is in the middle of a 12-day trip, listening to people’s stories of hardship.

“The government has made significant changes to social protection in the past decade, and I will be looking closely at the impact that has had on people living in poverty, and their realisation of basic rights,” he said before the visit.

“I have received hundreds of submissions that make clear many people are really struggling to make ends meet.”

Mr Alston’s investigation began days after the British finance minister announced that the era of austerity – a fiscal policy introduced by the ruling Conservative party in 2010 that limited public spending, cut benefits and ended thousands of government jobs – was “coming to an end”.

But residents in the seaside village of Jaywick told The

Guardian that changes to Britain’s welfare system left them dependent on food banks.

Once a popular holiday destination for 1930s Londoners, Jaywick has twice been named the most deprived area in the UK in the past decade.

A photograph of the area was featured in an advertisement by an Illinois congressional candidate backed by US President Donald Trump as an example of an impoverished area, with the caption: “Only you can stop this from becoming reality.”

In response, Jaywick’s parliamentary representative Giles Watling wrote a letter to the Illinois Republican Party inviting Dr Nick Stella, who lost to Democrat Bill Foster, to visit the village.

Mr Watling, a Conservative, described Jaywick as “on the up”. But recent media coverage as a result of the Republican advertisement has shown the daily struggles of its residents.

Britain’s government is under no obligation to implement Mr Alston’s recommendations. But Conservatives will be cautious about publicly disparaging the UN envoy’s findings because they are tied in the polls with the Labour Party.

During a visit to Edinburgh last week, Mr Alston met First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Conservative Party’s main opposition in Scotland, the Scottish National Party.

The dominant force in politics north of Hadrian’s Wall, the SNP’s anti-austerity message has proved popular in Scotland, where almost 20 per cent of the population now live in poverty.

Jaywick has twice been named the most deprived area in the UK in the past decade, and locals say they rely on food banks