FIFE MSP Alex Rowley is highlighting the fact that too many people, including many children, are living day to day with the impacts of poverty and is calling for a restructuring of the economy to end poverty once and for all in this Challenge Poverty Week 2020.

The Labour MSP is supporting the annual campaign from the Poverty Alliance which aims to build awareness and support for solutions to the blight of modern poverty as well as end the stigma of living on a low income.

Commenting on the campaign, Mr Rowley said: “Too many children in Fife and across the country go to school hungry – this is the true face of modern poverty. "Only a few weeks ago a report from the Trussell Trust found an 89% increase in the number of emergency food parcels handed out, compared with last year, including a shocking 107% increase in the number of parcels given to children.

“This Challenge Poverty Week takes place in the middle of a global pandemic, which is already having a massive impact on poverty levels and the long-term impacts are yet to even be felt."

He added: "Our economy is badly broken, but in rebuilding it we need to restructure it in such a way that no child should ever have to go to school hungry.

"This means boosting people’s incomes, reducing the cost of living, creating new jobs, delivering on training and skills and building homes suitable for all.

"The crisis has shown us that we need to take this action urgently and any delay will only exacerbate and prolong the blight of modern poverty we face in this country. Together we can challenge poverty – but it requires action more than words.”