MP Rushanara Ali has blasted government ministers during Treasury Question Time in Parliament for “failing to tackle child poverty” with half the kids in her constituency in London’s deprived East End growing up below the breadline.

The Bethnal Green & Bow MP warned the Commons yesterday (Weds) that tax increases together with welfare cuts would push another million youngsters into poverty in Britain by the end of the decade.

She said afterwards: “It is deeply worrying that the government has chosen to bury its head in the sand over the huge increase in child poverty forecast under its watch.”

She also demanded to know why the government had failed to publish a child poverty impact assessment alongside the Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill.

Her attack follow a warning the Child Poverty Action Group that tax and benefit changes will push a-million more children into poverty by 2020.