Dan Jarvis plans return to the political frontline with bill to bring back binding child poverty targets

Labour MP Dan Jarvis is to introduce a private member’s bill to bring back the legally binding child poverty targets scrapped by David Cameron.

The parliamentary maneuver is sure to raise the profile of Mr Jarvis, who has long been tipped as a potential successor to Jeremy Corbyn but who has kept a low profile of late.

Speaking at a fringe event at Labour’s conference in Liverpool Mr Jarvis however effectively announced his return to the political stage – promising to hold Theresa May’s “feet to the fire” on the issue.

Ms May has spoken of her commitment to improving life chances and helping the working class – but Mr Jarvis intends to highlight the gap between rhetoric and policy with a private member’s bill to be brought in early 2017.

“There are certain cultural norms that we have accepted. We seem to have accepted that elderly people freeze to death at home,” he told the fringe event, which was organised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the New Statesman magazine.

“We seem to have accepted that a quarter of kids grow up in poverty. I don’t think we should accept that, I don’t think it is acceptable. We are still a relatively prosperous nation and this is about political choices.

“It is deeply troubling that poverty has almost disappeared both from the agenda of both David Cameron and now the Government today.”

Last year the Government announced it would change the way it measured child poverty and legislate so that its new measure would not be legally binding.

Former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said the new measure would stop politicians trying to “ignore or misrepresent the true nature of poverty in Britain”. A coalition of anti-poverty charities however branded the move “bizarre”.

Mr Jarvis's bill would reinstate the targets – and will likely be seen as a test of Ms May's rhetoric on improving life chances.

Because the bill is a private members bill and does not – at least for now – have the support of the Government, it would be possible for any single backbench MP to "filibuster" it – meaning it is effectively vetoed by a single vote.

The move by Mr Jarvis appears to mark a change of strategy by some Labour moderates in challenging Mr Corbyn’s leadership – with MPs taking a more active role in opposition in a bid to show off their strengths.

Mr Jarvis conceded that the Government was unlikely to support the bill, but added that he hoped it would attract support “from across the house” and raise the profile of the issue of child poverty.

“I think it’s unlikely that the government are going to support my private member’s bill to introduce child poverty targets that they themselves scrapped,” he noted dryly.”

Mr Jarvis gave a speech in March this year widely seen as putting a toe in the water for a leadership bid – but he has kept a low profile during this summer’s leadership challenge to Mr Corbyn.