Fury at child death link with poverty

Child poverty campaigners have reacted angrily to new evidence highlighting the link between deprivation and infant death.

A report from the Office for National Statistics found that infant mortality rates were higher among lone mothers, who were generally younger and more likely to be poor and unemployed.

Mothers living in the most deprived areas also had a higher risk of having an underweight baby, a strong indicator of infant mortality and health outcomes in later life.

And mothers from ethnic minorities were 62 per cent more likely to have an underweight baby.

Child Poverty Action Group chief executive Kate Green said it was a “disgrace” that a child could be “damaged in the womb by the economic circumstances of the parent”.

She said the government should increase benefit rates for pregnant women.