Labour must tackle poverty to hold back Reform UK, says Big Issue founder

John Bird said Nigel Farage’s party was ‘only going places because the major parties have lost their way’. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy

Labour will not hold back the rise of Reform UK if it fails to tackle poverty, the Big Issue co-founder John Bird has warned as he tables an amendment to the schools bill that would force governments to meet legally binding child poverty reduction targets.

Lord Bird, who sits as a crossbench peer, said Nigel Farage’s party was “only going places because the major parties have lost their way”.