Coming up with a plan to end child poverty must be a “central mission” for the next Labour government, Wes Streeting has said, following his promotion from the role of shadow schools minister.
The MP for Ilford North and former National Union of Students president also said he would continue to work “really closely” with shadow education secretary Kate Green and her team in his new cross-departmental role.
Sir Keir Starmer has named Streeting as his new shadow child poverty secretary in a small reshuffle following last week’s election results.
Streeting confirmed to Schools Week today that as a result of his promotion he has left his role as shadow schools minister, which he has only held since October.
Labour sources said a replacement would be named “in due course”.
Streeting hopes to raise ‘profile’ of child poverty
Streeting said he was “looking forward to getting stuck in” to his new role and “giving child poverty the attention and profile it deserves”.
“Coming up with a plan to end child poverty has got to be a central mission for the next Labour government.”
Although Streeting’s new role is a new position at shadow cabinet level, Labour previously had a junior shadow role covering child poverty strategy, which was held by Green until she was appointed as shadow education secretary last June.
Green has previously said that lifting children out of poverty would be among the party’s priorities if it wins power again.
Whoever is appointed to replace Streeting in the shadow education team will be the fourth person to hold the shadow schools minister role in just over a year.
Mike Kane, who held the role from 2016 under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party, was moved to a transport role when Starmer took over last April. Margaret Greenwood then held the role until October, when she resigned to vote against the so-called “spycops” bill.
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