Michael Marmot: Labour has reneged on its child poverty promises

Lifting the two child benefit cap is an important step but will still leave 4.15 million children in poverty, Marmot tells Elisabeth Mahase Michael Marmot, the UK’s leading expert on health equity, questions why the Labour government has gone back on its promise to make England a “Marmot” country and urges Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take bold action to tackle child poverty. In an interview with The BMJ , Marmot says that Labour “ invited me with open arms when they were in opposition” but that, since getting into government, “ the arms have been a bit more folded.” In the run up to the 2024 election, Starmer’s Labour Party promised to follow the example set by “Marmot cities” such as Manchester by adopting the Marmot principles (box 1) and implementing policies that would improve health equity by giving “every child the best start in life” and ensuring “a healthy standard of living for all.”1 Eighteen months after taking power that promise has yet to come to fruition. Box 1 ### The 8 Marmot principles