Lucy Powell, the shadow child care minister, has some ideas. Miss Powell, who has seized the agenda after years of Labour inertia, wants to abolish Mr Cameron’s married couples’ tax allowance as an early step, saving £700 million. In addition, she would redeploy the £750 million that the Government would spend in 2015/16 on child-care tax breaks, arguing that at least a third of that sum would go to the very highest earners. Her aim would be to do away with the current confetti of credits and benefits and invest instead in better quality nurseries, open to all, with parents initially paying according to their means.