Tory peer says government has made a ‘political football’ out of poverty

Philippa Stroud who heads new commission aimed at tackling hardship says ministers need a long-term plan to help the poor

A Conservative peer and ex-adviser to former welfare secretary Iain Duncan Smith has accused the government of treating the UK's poverty crisis as a political football" and lacking the will and ambition to tackle soaring hardship and destitution.

Philippa Stroud, who this week launches an independent cross-party commission aimed at finding practical solutions to poverty, said the pandemic and the cost of living crisis had showed long-term policy change was needed to transform the lives of millions of people struggling on low incomes.