Gordon Brown calls for new poverty fund to halt slide into ‘hungry decade’

Former PM says multibillion-pound fund would be transitional arrangement' to give struggling families breathing space

• Britain seems stuck in a doom loop of poverty. I have a plan to raise billions to address that

Gordon Brown has called for the creation of a multibillion-pound national poverty programme using interest levied on bank reserve funds as part of an emergency plan to halt Britain's slide into a hungry decade" of destitution and hardship.

The former UK prime minister said the programme would signify a break with 14 years of austerity and help provide short term pain relief" to millions of people in desperate hardship, alongside an overhaul of Britain's welfare safety net.