LBC's Ben Kentish gets into blistering live row with MP: 'Contradicting yourself!'

recently clashed with Conservative shadow housing minister in a fiery on-air exchange over child poverty, as the pair debated the impact of the child benefit cap. The row erupted when Hollinrake defended his party's 14-year record by insisting that getting people into work was the best way to tackle poverty. But Kentish quickly challenged his claim, pointing out that most people claiming child benefits are already in work.

However, Hollinrake insisted this is why the Conservatives made work pay more. He hit back: "We want those jobs to be better paying, which is why we increased the National Living Wage, and got two thirds of median income, some of the record increases for those people, on National Living Wage."

However, Kentish confronted him with a stark statistic, saying: "But in the time you were in government, Mr Hollinrake, the number of children pushed into relative poverty increased by 600,000." He pointed out this meant the Conservative party's measures were not successful.

Hollinrake brushed off the figure, accusing the LBC host of "picking one statistic", but Kentish retorted: "But it's a pretty damning one. You pushed 600,000 more children into poverty over 14 years."

The MP attempted to shift the focus to absolute poverty, calling it a "more accurate measure", but Kentish replied, "There's four measures for child poverty. Three of them show that it went up under the Conservatives."

Hollinrake argued that the government had brought 4.2million more people into work and cut unemployment by 1.2million during their time in office. "What's happened since Labour took over?" he asked. "150,000 fewer people in work."

Kentish pointed out the contradictions in his argument, saying: "You're saying we put wages up, we got more people into work, and that's the best way to lift child poverty. But I'm pointing out that at the same time, 600,000 more children were pushed into poverty. So it's not just about work."

This exchange comes as there has been a renewed political focus on child poverty as Labour's government-backed child poverty taskforce are reportedly considering bringing back the flagship Labour Sure Start early years programme, which was dismantled under the Conservative led coalition government.

Senior ministers such as Rachel Reeves and Bridget Phillipson have previously praised Sure Start, but one government source hinted that there are concerns about the cost of reintroducing it, telling "it wouldn't be an easy thing to do".

The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently found that Sure Start generated £2 in savings for every £1 spent and delivered over £2.8billion in long-term financial benefits at its peak.

Meanwhile, Keir Starmer is under pressure to address child poverty by , which is a policy that was introduced under the Conservatives.