ANTI-POVERTY campaigners have backed calls for the government to re-establish a target for ending child poverty amid warnings that levels are set to soar in the next few years.

Child Poverty Action Group chief executive Alison Garnham said that two-thirds of the children in poverty live in working households, and that low pay is now the most significant cause of the problem.

Nearly four million children live in poverty in Britain, while the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says relative child poverty is set to rise by 50 per cent over the course of this Parliament.

Ms Garnham slammed the Tories’ “enormous” cuts to benefits and tax credits, the closure of Sure Start centres, a lack of investment in education and poor access to childcare. She also warned of a “tsunami” of further problems linked to child poverty in the coming years.

Today, MPs will debate a private member’s Bill launched by Labour MP Dan Jarvis, who is seeking crossparty support for his call to re-establish a government target for ending child poverty.

Mr Jarvis said the Child Poverty in the UK (Target for Reduction) Bill was a test of the PM’s commitment to those on the breadline whom she has previously pledged to help.

Labour passed the Child Poverty Act in 2010, aiming to drastically reduce child poverty by 2020, but it was scrapped in 2015 as part of Tory welfare reforms.

The government has said it is taking a “fundamentally different” approach to child poverty, moving away from income-based targets towards tackling its root causes.

In Scotland, campaigners and trade unions have urged Holyrood to use new powers to tackle poverty by increasing child benefit payments, as ministers debate the forthcoming draft budget.

A coalition of children’s charities, trade unions and anti-poverty groups want payments to be increased by £5 a week, which they argue could reduce child poverty in Scotland by 14 per cent, benefiting 30,000 deprived children.

Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland director John Dickie said a small increase “could be the difference between a child going on a school trip or missing out, or the difference between a trip to the foodbank and a trip to the supermarket.”

A report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health found last week that 210,000 children in Scotland live in poverty.