One topic that has attracted news interest this week is Labour’s positioning on the Conservative two-child limit on welfare support. To be clear, I voted against and have always opposed this policy, including throughout my period as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. It is one of several major problems with the social security system after billions of pounds were cut from it since 2010. But to change all of these – including local housing allowance, the benefit cap, and this two-child limit – will take time. The way Tory Governments have run down the economy over the last thirteen years means there is huge pressure on nearly every public service, but we will only promise more funds right now where we are able to say where that money would come from, such as our commitments to abolishing the non-dom tax regime or charging VAT on private school fees. Ensuring we are trusted on the economy is integral to our future success, and therefore to ending the Conservative ability to bring in further manoeuvres which make life harder for struggling families.

However, I want you to be assured that I am extremely clear Labour Governments have always and must be committed to the eradication of child poverty, and Keir’s five mission’s include a clear commitment to break down barriers to opportunity at every stage. An ambitious and robust child poverty strategy must naturally be a part of this. Under the last Labour Government, a range of radical measures ensured that both absolute and relative measures of child poverty and indeed pensioner poverty fell markedly. I want to be part of a value-led Labour Government which proudly and determinedly repeats these successes and goes even further to ensure your birth circumstances and demographics do not determine your life chances and opportunities. I wish we could undo the last thirteen – maybe nearly fifteen by the time an election is called – years of Tory penalties overnight, but the state of the nation’s books may very sadly not allow it.

What is for sure is that with every year of Conservative rule, everyone feels worse off. As I write this, I am en-route to Labour’s National Policy Forum weekend in Nottingham, where representatives from across the Labour movement will come to together to put more meat on the bones of our policy offer heading towards the General Election. Of course I’ll specifically be looking at what our pro-worker, pro-business stance looks like in detail, but between us we will be looking to identify an affordable by hope-fuelled agenda that puts our economy and our public services back on track and restores pride to our communities.