Child poverty Will Labour meet pledge amid push for growth?

'Many of us had moments when we felt overwhelmed in sharing our stories.

- Heather Stewart

However, we pushed through, with the hope of changing policies that will improve the living standards of the many families living on low incomes who struggle in silence." Tayyaba Siddiqui was one of a group of parents and carers who sat around a table in Downing Street last month with the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, and the employment minister Alison McGovern to discuss the challenges of raising children in poverty - and what needs to change.

The event was part of a comprehensive listening exercise, which has brought ministers and civil servants face to face with families and experts up and down the UK, to better understand the lives of the 4.3 million children living below the poverty line.

"We left the room with a promise of improvement and a government willing to work on the issues we raised," Siddiqui wrote in a blogpost for the Child Poverty Action Group charity, which facilitated the meeting.

Yet while they do not doubt the sincerity of the ministers directly involved, there is a wariness among campaigners about whether the long-awaited child poverty strategy will come with the necessary resources to make a real difference.

"We are now very anxious that this hasn't been given the attention it deserves from the very top, politically," said one campaigner.

Some inside government share similar concerns: that while Labour's manifesto committed to tackling child poverty, aspects of the challenge sit uneasily with the party's preoccupations.