THE toxic legacy left by the Conservatives is lingering over us like a dark cloud. Labour must now claw its way out of a £22bn black hole in public finances to bring about the change we promised at the recent election.

But we must be bold. We cannot allow austerity politics to continue. It is time we look to those with the broadest shoulders to share the burden. I will be working every day with my colleagues to ensure that workers, families and pensioners must not suffer because of Conservative failings.

In 2020 Andy Summers, associate professor at the London School of Economics said a “wealth tax would work, raise significant revenue, and be fairer and more efficient than the alternatives”.

In a progressive tax system like ours the super-rich can pay a one per cent wealth tax and see no change in their quality of life but it would make a huge difference to the quality of the lives of our children and pensioners. Nobody is wanting to make the super-rich poor or take away what they have earned other than a very moderate one per cent tax that is morally right and economically savvy.

So once we have raised the £25bn, how would we use it? Clearly the £22bn black hole in public finances swallows up the vast majority of the fiscal gains but with £3bn left over we have an opportunity. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that removing the two-child limit on claiming benefits would cost the government about £3.4bn a year, or roughly equal to cutting the basic rate of income tax by half a penny.

Our North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness, has said that reducing child poverty will define her time in office and she has set up a child poverty reduction unit to develop and roll out a region-wide strategy. There are plans for a childcare grant to support parents, facing childcare costs of up to £175 per child per week during school holidays, back into work.

Over the last 14 years our children have been left behind by the Conservatives, with no decisive action taken to address the root causes of poverty. This is completely unacceptable – no child should be left hungry, cold or have their future held back. That is why the Prime Minister has appointed the Work & Pensions Secretary (Liz Kendall) and the Education Secretary (Bridget Phillipson) as the joint chairs of a new ministerial taskforce to begin work on a Child Poverty Strategy.

Whether the Conservatives’ failure was down to incompetence or wilful neglect will be a discussion for some time to come but where they failed Labour must step up and deliver for the future of our young people.

The outcome of the Child Poverty Taskforce, expected in the spring of 2025, is much anticipated and its important work looking at what measures are needed to improve children’s lives and life chances now as well as addressing the root causes of child poverty in the long term cannot come soon enough.

After 14 years of economic failure ripping our communities apart, the Labour Party must now face the challenge head on and take the bold action needed to lift 4.3m children out of the Dickensian, Tory-imposed poverty that they find themselves in.