Children of austerity need a rescue plan, Gordon Brown says

Former prime minister proposes £3bn support package for more than 3 million of ‘blighted generation’

• Gordon Brown: ‘Millions of British children born since 2010 have only known poverty. My plan would give them hope’

Gordon Brown has called for a rescue plan for “austerity’s children” – a generation of more than 3 million UK young people born after 2010 from low-income families who “have never known what it is like to be free of poverty”.

The former Labour prime minister urged the government to create a multibillion pound programme of support for a “blighted generation” that has grown up under Tory rule amid huge public spending cuts, Covid, the cost of living crisis and the Ukraine conflict.