The Thick Of It creator Armando Iannucci has said that listening to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt speaking about welfare is difficult as the Government has policies that are “putting more people into poverty”.
The Scottish director and satirist, a patron of the Child Poverty Action Group, was asked for his reaction to Mr Hunt speaking about the squeeze on households on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.
The 60-year-old, whose films include The Personal History Of David Copperfield, based on the book of a similar name by Charles Dickens, said: “This is the very week that the poverty report came out, saying that child poverty has gone up yet again, and it’s almost like we’re in a Dickens novel rather than the sixth biggest economy in the world, saying there’s now 3.6 million children in poverty.
“So for every average class of 30, nine are in poverty and to say that we’re turning a corner and we’re on the right track, while ignoring that is very… it was hard for me to hear him (Mr Hunt)… you use that phrase, carrot and stick… because the implication being that you need a stick to beat those on welfare, you need a stick to beat those in poverty.
“And lay aside all the emotional (and) the psychological impact poverty has on children, the shame, the embarrassment… kids are going to school, pretending to have a packed lunch when they don’t have anything in their box, not having had any breakfast, and therefore going to school tired and stressed.”
Iannucci said the economy would be helped by “fewer people” in poverty, citing the impacts on education, children’s services, health, and the legal system.
He added: “So at the moment, we’re in a situation where we’re actually coming up with policies that are putting more people into poverty, and therefore having a greater impact and detriment to the economy because of it.”
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