Labour has accused the Tories of “abandoning families” after more than 1,600 children’s centres closed since they came to power.
There are almost a third fewer children’s centres, where local families with young children can go to enjoy facilities and receive parenting support than in 2010 when the Conservative Party came to power.
Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the centres were a “lifeline” for families - and warned more closures were sure to follow after the Tories “crashed the economy.”
According to Labour research, one in three English councils have lost half of their children’s centres.
Councils such as Wigan and Tameside in the North West, Oxfordshire and Luton in the South, and Newcastle upon-Tyne in the North East, have lost more than three quarters of their children’s centres.
Gateshead, also in the North East, lost 93% of all of its children’s centres.
Ms Phillipson told the Sunday Mirror: “This is yet more evidence that the Conservatives have abandoned families.
“Children’s centres are a lifeline for parents across the country but more and more will inevitably face closure because the Conservatives crashed the economy.”
Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Ms Phillipson compared the UK’s childcare provision with tiny Estonia - where parents in the capital Tallinn can pay as little as £70 a month in nursery fees.
The average full-time nursery fees in the UK is £1,052 a month, according to the Family and Childcare Trust.
Labour has vowed to offer breakfast clubs to every primary school child in England - and remove barriers to councils wanting to open more maintained nurseries.
Ms Phillipson added: “Labour will support families with a modern childcare system from parental leave to the end of primary school.”
'If Rishi Sunak believed education was 'defining mission' of his government, he would be protecting children's centres'
By Bridget Phillipson, Shadow Education Secretary
Sure Start, that great legacy of the last Labour Government, used to be a lifeline for families up and down this country. Now, on this evidence, it lies in tatters.
Rishi Sunak keeps telling us that he thinks education will be the defining mission of his Government but if that was true, he wouldn’t be closing children’s centres, he would be protecting them.
That’s because children’s centres play a vital role in giving children the best start in life. We know that gaps in learning, development and opportunities open up in our earliest years so our solutions must start early too, bringing together quality childcare, health and parenting support.
As we face the future, Labour is thinking about what families need: a modern childcare system that that sets up every child to achieve and thrive, that lets parents get back to work and gives our economy the growth we need to succeed.
We can learn a lot from tiny Estonia, which I visited only last month: educational standards are high with Estonia outperforming the UK and other countries, because the building blocks of children’s education are put in place early, in innovative kindergartens that provide wraparound childcare giving parents flexibility in their working lives.
Keir Starmer has an ambitious vision for Britain and childcare will be at the heart of it, supporting families from the end of parental leave to the end of primary school.
At the same time, he has also had to be honest with the British people: Labour will have to make tough choices in government because the Conservatives crashed the economy.
But we will always put children first, because we know that they are the future of our economy and our society. The Conservatives have shown with their Autumn Statement they only care about putting the richest first.
No-one should be in any doubt about their priorities: they picked the pockets of working people while protecting the wealthiest in society who squirrel away their money abroad by claiming non-dom tax status.
Labour would have ended these tax loopholes and used some of that money to pay for breakfast clubs for every primary school child in England – setting up children for the day and giving parents choices, enabling them to get back into work.
And we would help combat the lack of available childcare places by ending rules which stop councils from creating new childcare provision when there is a need for it.
