We need a government that will end child poverty...it's a stain on our country

LOOK into the eyes of the youngest Britons and it will quickly become apparent there is a crisis depriving them not just of basic necessities, such as clothes and medical care, but - most tragically - hope.

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A secondary school pupil in Liverpool brings an empty lunch box to school every day, trying to fit in. A teacher, taking notice, fills it with food, only for her not to touch it and take it home to her hungry siblings.

An aspiring footballer turns up for training at Blackburn Football Club hiding the boots he plays in because the soles are riddled with holes.

A child in Fife sleeps on the sofa one night in three as he and his two brothers take turns trading the comfort of the small couch for the discomfort of a cold, hard floor. A teenager in Swansea, who has only ever had secondhand clothes, gets a new pair of trainers for the first time and can't shake the feeling she has been living a secondhand life.

Even at an age when their whole life is in front of them and they should be able to dream of a successful future, all these young people have been drained of hope.

While they are unlikely to make the front pages, these are increasingly common stories in a poverty crisis that has been creeping up and is now careening upwards.

I've heard stories like these as I travel around Britain, a reminder that poverty is the most urgent social issue facing the country.

There are now 4.2 million children condemned to abject poverty. In 2010, when the Conservatives came to power, the UK had 35 foodbanks. Now there are 2,600.