Field to head govt poverty report
By politics.co.uk staff
Rebel parliamentarian Frank Field has become the first Labour MP to accept a job with the Lib-Con coalition government.
Mr Field, who has a long track record of rebelling against the former Labour government, will head up an independent review into UK poverty.
The review will include analysis of how school life is affected by troubles at home, and offer suggestions for poverty reduction within the context of the UK’s financial circumstances.
“I hope we will have a programme of action, particularly emphasising how we put all our emphasis on extending life chances for poorer children that we have something which is workable which the government can actually act on,” Mr Field told the Today programme.
“I don’t think we need lots of brilliant new ideas, lots of people have done work, we now need to bring that together and shape it in a way which leads to action.”
Mr Field spearheaded the campaign against Gordon Brown’s 10p tax rate, which culminated in a Commons apology where he told the then-prime minister he was sorry for allowing the row to become personal.
He was asked by Tony Blair to “think the unthinkable” on welfare reform, just to have his recommendations rejected as unpalatable to the Labour party.
Treasury, Home Office and the Department of Work and Pensions will all contribute to the report.
