‘Cruel’ Tories broke human rights laws by leaving kids to go hungry
Watchdog blames cuts for food crisis
SAVAGE Tory cuts that hit families hardest have breached international human rights laws by making tens of thousands of children go hungry, a damning report claims.
The surge in reliance on foodbanks is the fault of a decade of brutal austerity, says monitor Human Rights Watch.
It means the government is flouting a basic principle of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Kartik Raj of Human Rights Watch said: “This rise in hunger has the UK Government’s fingerprints all over it.
“Standing aside and relying on charities to pick up the pieces of its cruel and harmful policies is unacceptable.
“The UK Government needs to take urgent action to ensure its poorest residents aren’t forced to go hungry.”
And the watchdog accuses the government of burying its head in the sand, adding: “It has yet to fully acknowledge its own responsibility, and the direct impact of many of its policies, for the hunger crisis or to take adequate steps to address it.”
The Mirror told last month how struggling families ate over 14 million foodbank meals in the previous 12 months – up by a fifth in one year – as the country’s biggest network, the Trussell Trust, handed out 1.6 million aid packages.
New York-based Human Rights Watch, whose report looked at deprived areas in
Hull, Oxford and Cambridgeshire, said: “Successive governments since 2010 [when the Tory-led coalition took power] have slashed welfare spending in the name of austerity, with support to families and children disproportionately hit.” Welfare for kids and families dropped 44% between 2010 and 2018, the report says – “far outstripping cuts in many other areas of government expenditure”. It points to the benefit caps, welfare freeze and two-child limit on child tax credits as fuelling the crisis.
It also criticises Universal Credit and its sanctions on those “who fail to meet strict targets... that are often impossible for people, especially single parents, to meet”.
Experts did 126 interviews, including with families, foodbank volunteers and school staff. Analysts also studied official data and statistics, including from the Government and local authorities.
The report says most of those hit by KARTIK RAJ OF NEW YORKBASED HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH foodbank meals handed out to British families in the past year PICTURE POSED BY MODEL
austerity and going hungry were “singleparent households led by women”.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “The right to food is recognised in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as part of the right to an adequate standard of living, and is enshrined in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.”
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Margaret Greenwood said responsibility “lies firmly at the Conservatives’ door”.
A Government spokeswoman said: “We’re helping parents to move into work to give families the best opportunity to move out of poverty. Employment is at a record high. We spend £95billion a year on working-age benefits and we’re supporting over one million of the country’s most disadvantaged children through free school meals.”
Relying on charities to pick up the pieces of its policies is unacceptable