‘Will the kids eat or not?’ In Keir Starmer’s constituency, families struggle with poverty

It’s been one of Cat Onyac’s better days. Her two children are concentrating on their crochet project, sitting in the sunshine at HvH Arts in north London. And they’ve eaten. “All the children get a hot meal,” she says.

The family is at a summer scheme for children in Camden on the edge of Keir Starmer’s constituency, and food is just as important as learning photography, painting or music.

“That means not worrying whether they’re going to eat or not,” says Cat, a single parent. “It helps reduce the shopping bill. I’m not worrying what am I going to make for them and are they going to be the only child who hasn’t had anything to eat?”

It’s people like Onyac and her family who were on the minds of the seven Labour MPs who rebelled against the party last week and voted for an SNP amendment to lift the two-child benefit limit. That, along with the benefit cap, the effects of inflation and the roll out of universal credit, pushed 700,000 more children into poverty over the past 14 years.

Most members of the cabinet spoke out against these measures while in opposition, but before the election Starmer made it clear that Labour would not be able to afford to scrap the two-child benefit cap. Since becoming prime minister, he has hinted that it might go, but no decision has been taken.

The prime minister’s constituency of Holborn and St Pancras covers some of the most prosperous parts of London, from the mansions bordering Regent’s Park to new apartment blocks overlooking Google and Meta at King’s Cross, but there is also substantial poverty here.

House of Commons figures show that 21.8% of children – 3,220 individuals – in Holborn and St Pancras were living in absolute poverty in 2022-23, with 27.4% in relative poverty, both above the national average.

HvH Arts is near the northern border of the constituency, and many of the 70 parents who rely on its after-school and holiday schemes live in Starmer’s patch. “There is a need,” says chief executive Debbi Clark. “We have a waiting list right now for every single project. Everything is overbooked, every single day.”

Pressures on the parents here range from sourcing school uniform to dealing with the benefits system. “Cost of living affects everybody in so many ways,” says Onyac. “Even if I can go without a meal for a day, my children can’t. So it’s like them eating and then figuring out leftovers for me.”

Ash Rahman, co-founder of Pro Touch SA football academy in Camden Lock, says summer is often the hardest time for struggling families. “I was a free school meals kid,” he says. “I know what it’s like.”

His team runs a six-week holiday programme and says only about one in 10 of the 1,000 bookings is from a family who pay. The rest qualify for support. “We tell parents to bring a container when they pick up their children,” he says. “We have surplus food, so we offer it to them. One time, when we asked if anyone would like seconds, this child said ‘Ash, can I take some food for my mum?’”

The government has promised to develop a child poverty strategy , with a new child poverty unit in the Cabinet Office – a measure Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, welcomes.

Yet although the reasons people are dragged into poverty can be complex, there are some obvious causes of hardship. “We now spend something like £50bn a year less on social security than we did in 2010,” Garnham said. “So it’s hardly surprising people have not been managing. We hadn’t even heard of food banks all those years ago. Child poverty for families with more than three children has been rising rapidly, so you could make a big win by getting rid of that policy.”

Related: The two-child benefit cap: what is it, does it work and how much would it cost to scrap it?

Trussell Trust food banks distributed 3.1m food parcels in 2023-24, of which 1.1m were for children, almost double the number it gave out five years ago. Sumi Rabindrakumar, its head of policy and research, said some measures short of abolishing the two child cap would help. “What needs to happen in the government’s first 100 days is some action to alleviate immediate hardship, particularly ahead of winter,” she said.

Councils can deliver support for people in crisis using the household support fund , introduced near the start of the cost of living crisis, but that will end in September. “It is a real lifeline for our communities,” Rabindrakumar said. “It helps councils deliver crisis support quickly”

The trust is also calling for a minimum level of universal credit for people who are paying for the short-term loans they needed before they got a first payment via deductions from their benefits. At the moment, up to 25% can be deducted, which means a single person under 25 getting just £233.76 a month.

“We also want to see a commitment to extend support for private renters,” she said. “The government knows from its renters’ rights bill that private renters are feeling the pinch.