Big Issue vendors and frontline staff have visited Labour HQ in Southwark and Conservative Campaign HQ in Westminster to deliver an open letter urging whoever forms the next government to eradicate poverty in the UK.
The open letter has been signed by 12,227 members of the public, including the Big Issue Group’s ambassadors Christopher Eccleston, George Clarke and Daniel Mays, and a number of leading social businesses supported by the Big Issue’s social investment arm Big Issue Invest.
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One in five people in the UK live in poverty. There are a reported 3.8 million people experiencing destitution, struggling to meet their most basic needs, unable to feed, clothe and keep themselves warm. Over the past 30 years, the UK has experienced the biggest increase in child poverty since records began, with 4.3 million children now living in poverty.
The Big Issue Group has demanded an end to this crisis, with a letter recommending a number of key changes the next government can implement within its first year of office in order to dismantle poverty.
Lee, a Big Issue vendor who sells in Covent Garden, said: “Today, with a group of other vendors, we’ve visited Labour and Tory headquarters to deliver a message to the candidates. This is probably the most important election we’ve ever lived through – unfortunately politicians say that about every election, but for this one it is true.
“I’m here as a representative of not just other vendors, but anyone who lives in poverty or the edge of poverty – people who wouldn’t have the energy or time to come to central London, knock on the door and say ‘this is us’.”