The UN's special rapporteur Philip Alston said Tory policies and cuts to benefits are 'entrenching' poverty and inflicting misery on the most vulnerable

The UN's poverty envoy today blasted Britain as 'mean-spirited and callous' and compared its benefits rules to China's cruel one-child policy.

Special rapporteur Philip Alston's controversial new report follows a two-week 'human rights fact-finding visit' to the UK.

Today he said 14million people - a fifth of the UK population - now live in poverty and 1.5million of them are destitute because they are unable to afford basic essentials.

The Australian lawyer has blamed the Tories and said since 2010 they have chosen to inflict 'great misery' and have created 'social calamity and economic disaster' now 'entrenching' poverty.

He said: 'British compassion for those who are suffering has been replaced by a punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous approach apparently designed to instill discipline where it is least useful'.

And he said Brexit will make poverty even worse, adding ministers are 'in denial and don't see any problems'.

At an extraordinary press conference in London today the academic said the decision to limit benefits to two children is 'in the same ball park' as China's one-child policy.

The limit on China's population was introduced in 1979 and abolished in late 2015 - but only after 500million abortions and sterilisations and many unwanted children were abandoned.

Prof Alston said: 'China's one child policy - this is in the same ball park. That poor people mustn't have more than two children and if they do the rest will suffer. It's a perfect way to punish families'.

He also accused the UK of breaching UN human rights rules including for women, saying Universal Credit proposals to make single payments to families could give more 'control to a financially or physically abusive partner'.

He added: 'If you got a group of misogynists in a room and said how can we make this system work for men and not for women they would not have come up with too many ideas that are not already in place'.

Critics have blasted his tour and said the UN should to be studying poverty in third world countries rather than the UK, the world's fifth largest economy.

The UN expert (pictured in Newcastle this week) said today that 14million people in the UK are in poverty

Prof Alston 'human rights fact-finding visit' to the UK has taken in: Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Essex, Glasgow, Jaywick, London, and Newcastle - to 'investigate Government efforts to eradicate poverty'

His damning UN report blames cuts to benefits since 2010, calling the austerity a 'radical social engineering' exercise and not made for economic reasons.

UN poverty tsar's damning picture of 'mean-spirited' Britain On Brexit If current policies towards low income working people and others living in poverty are maintained in the face of these developments, the poor will be substantially less well off than they already are. On asylum seekers and migrants Destitution is built into the asylum system. Asylum seekers are banned from working and limited to a derisory level of support that guarantees they will live in poverty. While asylum seekers receive some basic supports such as housing, they are left to make do with an inadequate, poverty-level income of around £5 a day. On women Women are particularly affected by poverty. Under Universal Credit, single payments to an entire household may entrench problematic and often gendered dynamics within a couple, including by giving control of the payments to a financially or physically abusive partner. On children Many of the recent changes to social support in the UK have a disparate impact on children, including the deeply problematic two child policy, the outrageous rape exception, and the benefits cap. 1.5 million more children will fall into poverty between 2010 and 2021/22 as a result of the changes to benefits and taxes. On pensioners Despite the protections offered by the triple lock, pensioner poverty has begun to rise after decades of decline. Women born in the 1950s have been particularly impacted by an abrupt and poorly phased in change in the state pension age from 60 to 66. On the disabled Nearly half of those in poverty, 6.9 million people, are from families in which someone has a disability. They have also been some of the hardest hit from austerity measures. As a result of changes to benefits and taxes since 2010, some families with disabilities are projected to lose £11,000 on average by 2021/22, more than 30 per cent of their annual net income. Advertisement

He said today: 'The government could solve this, the money is there, but they choose not to'.

The UN envoy also said levels of child poverty are 'not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster'.

The commonly used poverty line marks anyone as poor if they are living on less than 60 per cent of average income.

On this measure, a typical poor person had an income of around £11,257 but spent £15,829.

Today's extraordinary report claims:

Decision to limit child benefit payments to first two children is in the same ball park' as China's one-child policy because parents are punished if they have any more

That benefits rules are misogynistic and breach human rights because they 'work for men and not for women'

People in poverty will 'bear the brunt' of the economic consequences of Brexit

Council cuts are 'damaging the fabric' of society and middle classes will soon 'find themselves living in an increasingly hostile and unwelcoming society'

Australian Prof Alston has been on a two-week 'human rights fact-finding visit' to the UK to 'investigate Government efforts to eradicate poverty'.

He has been looking at the rollout of Universal Credit, child poverty, and the implications on poverty of Brexit by speaking to people in the UK's poorest villages, towns and cities.

Today he accused the Government of choosing to 'impose a rigid order on the lives of those least capable of coping with today's world, and elevating the goal of enforcing blind compliance over a genuine concern to improve the well-being of those at the lowest levels of British society'.

He added: 'In the area of poverty-related policy, the evidence points to the conclusion that the driving force has not been economic but rather a commitment to achieving radical social re-engineering'.

Prof Alston's trip to Britain is the second mission to a Western European country by a poverty rapporteur in the last 100 years, the first being to Ireland in 2011.

And children, the disabled, pensioners, asylum seekers and migrants are the worst hit groups, he said.

He said: 'During my visit I have spoken with people who depend on food banks and charities for their next meal, who are sleeping on friends' couches because they are homeless and don't have a safe place for their children to sleep, who have sold sex for money or shelter, children who are growing up in poverty unsure of their future.

'I've also met young people who feel gangs are the only way out of destitution, and people with disabilities who are being told they need to go back to work or lose benefits, against their doctor's orders'.

Prof Alston also claimed people in poverty will 'bear the brunt' of the economic consequences of Brexit.

He said 'the impact of Brexit on the British people has not been examined as it should be' adding 'those in lower income groups are really going to suffer'.

Edinburgh: Philip Alston meeting First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to discuss her policies on poverty

Newcastle: The academic visited a food bank in the city and said today more and more people are depending on them to survive

Belfast: His trip to Northern Ireland lead to him meeting groups campaigning for better quality housing

Child Poverty Action Group chief executive Alison Garnham said Prof Alston's findings should be 'a wake-up call for government'.

UN won't reveal the cost of poverty tsar's trip or where he stayed The United Nations today refused to tell MailOnline the cost of New York based Philip Alston's two-week UK trip. But in 2013 it emerged a UN official who condemned Britain's housing policy chose only the best UK accommodation for herself. Raquel Rolnik (pictured) stayed at a four-star hotel where the cheapest room costs £300 a night while preparing a report claiming the so-called 'bedroom tax' meant people were going hungry to pay their rent. The UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing was put up in the Rubens at the Palace Hotel in the shadow of Buckingham Palace, where diners can spend thousands on a single bottle of wine. She shunned hotels far closer to the UN offices she used, which had rooms for less than half the price. Mrs Rolnik's 12-day mission was paid for by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is supported by British taxes. Tory MPs labelled Mrs Rolnik an 'international trougher' and called for a rethink after cash intended for the world's poorest was used to support attacks on British policy. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith called Sao Paulo-born Mrs Rolnik 'a loopy Brazilian Leftie' and said 'her actions undermine the impartiality of the UN'. Advertisement

'Child poverty isn't only happening elsewhere, it's here in the UK and it's rising,' said Ms Garnham.

'It's in families where parents can't work because of illness or disability but mostly it's in families who work for low wages while costs are rising.

'Wherever you are in the UK, you are never far from seeing the impact of poverty and austerity policies on the most vulnerable.'

But a Government spokesman said: 'We completely disagree with this analysis. With this Government's changes, household incomes have never been higher, income inequality has fallen, the number of children living in workless households is at a record low and there are now one million fewer people living in absolute poverty compared with 2010.

'Universal Credit is supporting people into work faster, but we are listening to feedback and have made numerous improvements to the system including ensuring 2.4 million households will be up to £630 better off a year as a result of raising the work allowance.

'We are absolutely committed to helping people improve their lives while providing the right support for those who need it.'

Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood said she was 'deeply concerned' by the special rapporteur's findings.

'The Government should listen to the people being pushed into poverty by its policies,' said Ms Greenwood. 'Universal Credit is failing miserably, leaving families in debt, rent arrears and at risk of becoming homeless. Three million children are growing up in poverty despite living in a working household.

'Labour will stop the roll-out of Universal Credit, end the benefit freeze and transform the social security system so that it supports people instead of punishing them.'

Residents in east London told the United Nations meeting how they have been left homeless and hungry in the wake of stringent welfare cuts

The UN envoy has sparked outrage among some, who are questioning why it has come to the UK

Universal credit 'could be changed overnight for very little money', says poverty guru Universal Credit waiting times have 'plunged people into misery and despair', according to a United Nations envoy. Professor Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights said on Friday the introduction of Universal Credit has caused extreme hardship but could easily be reversed by the Government. He said: 'If a new minister was interested, if a new Government were interested, the harshness could be changed overnight and for very little money.' The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Esther McVey, resigned from Theresa May's Cabinet on Thursday citing her disagreement with the Prime Minister's Brexit proposal. Advertisement

This week he went to the poorest village in Britain and then met Londoners who said they have been left 'homeless and hungry' in the wake of welfare cuts.

On his tour, Prof Alston spoke to pressure groups, academics, trade unions, food bank organisers, and homelessness campaigners while also visiting Cardiff, Oxford, Newcastle, Glasgow and Belfast.

At the meeting in Newham, east London, on Monday, Prof Alston heard from a West African mother how she had to wait for 20 hours outside social services after fleeing an abusive relationship .

She said while waiting she was left so hungry she had to drink her child's milk.

Another disabled man said he was fined for making a mistake on his universal credit application, and he heard how a new mother was placed in a hostel with her three-day-old son.

After hearing the witness statements Newham's mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, apologised 'on behalf of myself as mayor of Newham and on behalf of the council.'

An old image of Jaywick Sands was used in the recent mid-term elections by an American political candidate to illustrate extreme poverty much to the anger of residents and local officials

The Australian lawyer turned UN rapporteur who has blasted 'callous' Britain Philip Alston (pictured) has been United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights in June 2014. Born and educated in Australia, he has a doctorate from the University of California and has worked at the UN since 1980s. He was the first Rapporteur of the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights from 1987 until 1990, and then chaired the Committee for eight years until the end of 1998. Between 2002 and 2007, he served as Special Adviser to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Millennium Development Goals, and between 2004 and 2010, as Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. He was also Unicef’s legal adviser throughout the process of drafting the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Advertisement

He also paid a visit to the seaside village of Jaywick in Essex.

Despite its tiny size and a population of less than 5000 people, the village has become the ultimate symbol of decline after finding itself at the centre of a furious row involving the US elections.

An old image of Jawick Sands was used in the recent mid-term elections by an American political candidate to illustrate extreme poverty much to the anger of residents and local officials.

David Gordon, director of the Townsend Center for International Poverty Research at the University of Bristol, said: 'There's an oddity to this, obviously.

'When you think of the special rapporteurs on extreme poverty and human rights, you expect them to be visiting sub-Saharan Africa or Haiti. You don't expect them to be visiting the U.K.'

Visits by the UN-appointed envoys have a long history of controversy in the UK.

In 2013, a visit from the UN's inspector Raquel Rolnik caused a political row after she was accused of producing a 'misleading Marxist diatribe'.

Then-work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith criticised her report as 'utterly ridiculous' following her demands for better housing for travellers.

Earlier this year, a UN envoy sparked fury from Theresa May after criticising Tory policies and immigration policy.

Tendayi Achiume also said the Brexit vote had made Britain more racist, and slammed the 'hostile environment' for illegal immigrants and the anti-terrorism programme Prevent.