Watch Priti Patel Blame Poverty On Everything But the Government

Four out of ten children in parts of Barrow, Cumbria are born into poverty. Questioned about this on BBC North West Tonight last night, Tory Home Secretary Priti Patel managed a solid half-sentence about child poverty being bad, before she started making out that the real victims here are government ministers having to shoulder the blame.

"It's appalling, but everybody – and it's not just ‘People in Westminster'…" she starts, referring to who's to blame for child poverty, "it's not just at a national level, it's at a local level through the…"

"It's the government, and you've had nearly ten years," interjects the journalist.

"Well, it's not the government though, is it?" says Patel, like she's telling the reporter off. Well, it's not the first time you've left the kitchen in a state, is it?

"Everybody just says it's 'the government', as if it's this sort of like bland blob that you can just go and blame," she says.

"So the government's not responsible for poverty?" asks the reporter.

"Well it's not, because it's all parts of society and the structures… Local authorities have a role to play, education, public services, which are locally led and locally run."

This time last year, the UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty toured the UK and concluded that austerity had pushed people into poverty. He noted that everyone could see it happening. Everyone except one actor that "has stubbornly resisted seeing the situation for what it is. The government has remained determinedly in a state of denial."

@SimonChilds13