Treasury and Work and Pensions

I hope that the right hon. Gentleman feels better for that, but he obviously heard a very different speech from the rest of us. I want to pick up on something that the shadow Chancellor said about poverty that was, I am afraid, completely wrong. He said that the number of people living on less than 40 per cent. of median income has grown by 750,000 since this Government took office. That is completely untrue. In fact, there has been no rise at all in the number of people living below 40 per cent. of median income since 1997. He based his claims on figures that began in 1994 rather than in 1997 and was, completely unknown to him, attacking the record of his own party in government. Our measures to tackle deprivation—every one of them opposed by the Conservatives—have helped to take 700,000 children above the internationally recognised definition of poverty since 1997, while the poorest families are now on average £3,400 a year better off.