MICHAEL Wills, the MP for North Swindon, has called on the Chancellor to do more to tackle child poverty.

The Government has published its consultation document: Tackling Child Pov-erty: Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life.

Mr Wills says the Govern-ment's consultation document identifies four key areas to tackling child poverty:

providing more support for family finances

giving priority to children's services, especially health and education

offering support to parenting for life

pursuing a partnership with the voluntary and community sectors.

He said: "I welcome the achievement of the Labour government in lifting more than a million children out of poverty.

"The record rises in child benefit, the Working Families Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, underlined by sustained increased investment in our public services, are giving real help to families and communities in North Swin-don."

"We must now build on the progress and I urge businesses, faith organisations, voluntary and community groups to undertake to tackle child poverty and give support to families.

"We must all play our part in making sure every child has a good start in life, if we are to build a stronger, fairer Britain and fulfil our goal that no child in Britain is born into poverty."