12 May 2023 , 14:02
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Politicians are choosing not to reduce child poverty and lying about it, a top public health expert has claimed.
University College London's Professor Sir Michael Marmot said he was "so tired" of hearing Tory politicians moan about taxes being too high when the UK's tax burden is low by international standards.
Sir Michael said the UK is "on track to make child poverty worse" - and said the Government could spend more on children in their early year but refused to do so, blaming high taxes.
There were 4.2 million children - or 29% of kids - living in poverty in the UK in 2021-22, according to the Child Poverty Action Group.
Sir Michael, who wrote a landmark report on inequalities for Gordon Brown, told a webinar: "I'm so tired of politicians saying we've got the highest tax levels for 70 years. We are a low tax country."
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The Resolution Foundation think tank has said taxes as a share of GDP are on track to hit a 70-year high of 37.7% by 2027-28.
Former PM Liz Truss wanted to slash taxes (Getty Images)But Sir Michael said: "If we were the average for the EU 14 we'd be up at 40% rather than 34%.
"If we were Denmark or France or Austria or Italy, we'd be much higher. We are a low tax country.
"We could choose to reduce child poverty. We could choose to spend more on children aged nought to five but we choose not to and we lie about it. We say 'oh, high tax levels'.
"They're not high tax levels. They're low tax levels by international standards."
Sir Michael expressed frustration at Liz Truss's disastrous efforts "to lower taxes and to make rich people richer".
"I said, look at the evidence, look at the evidence," he said.
He described the UK as a "poor country with some rich people" with the biggest income inequality of any wealthy country other than the USA.
Professor Sir Michael MarmotSir Michael argued that life expectancy began to stall when the Tories took power in 2010 and implemented brutal austerity policies.
"The policies of austerity that the government put in place led to this slowdown in improvement in health. It interrupted a century long pattern of improvement," he said
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"We were being told that the reason we had austerity during the period after 2010 is so we could get back to economic growth.
"We had the biggest cuts and the worst economic growth. Didn't work. Didn't work. The political decision of cutting public services in order to get a strong economy - we cut public services and we have got a weaker economy."
Prof Marmot said the situation should have been seen as a "public health emergency" with health inequalities widening and life expectancy falling for the poorest people.
Furlough and the Universal Credit uplift made a big difference to the poorest 20% of Brits, he said.
But he added: "After the first year the pandemic normal service resumed. Now we're back to the poorer you are, the bigger the drop in income you get.
"This is not good, and that's the five year average. We're quite good as a country at making poor people poorer."
He said child poverty fell in the first year of the pandemic but rose to 31% and is predicted to rise to 33%. The UK ranks 31 out of 41 countries for child poverty, according to the OECD.
"We are on a track to make child poverty even worse, and it ain't good," he said.
He argued that the "tottering" NHS was under intense pressure due to failure to stamp out poverty.
"Why treat people and then return them to the conditions that made them sick," he said.