Plaid Cymru AM for Mid and West Wales, Nerys Evans, has called for urgent action following the release of statistics showing that up 47 per cent of families in the constituency Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire live at or below the poverty line, while in Preseli and Pembrokeshire it is 49 per cent.
Nerys Evans has backed a Statement of Opinion at the Assembly supporting the 'Keep the Promise' campaign, calling on the UK Government to meet its child poverty commitments.
"This report is shocking but sadly familiar," she said. "This sort of poverty has characterised many parts of Wales for too long. It is absolutely inexcusable that any child should live in poverty, but to hear that nearly half of families in our local constituencies should have their life chances compromised from birth is tragic.
"The figures are a huge blow to the efforts being made to eradicate child poverty in Wales. The most vulnerable in our society are paying the price for the UK Government's missed opportunities in several Budgets. There is a moral obligation on Whitehall to come up with the necessary resources to reverse this damaging trend. Labour refuses to take from the energy companies' billions of pounds in profits to help the millions of people hurting from rising gas and electricity bills. And they have doubled taxes on those on modest incomes by scrapping the 10p tax."