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The Government’s austerity policies will push a further 800,000 children into poverty, a report warns today.

The Oxfam document says George Osborne’s cuts and tax rises are “massively increasing” inequality in the UK.

It warns that by 2020 there will an additional 800,000 children - up from 2.3million at present - and 1.9m more adults living below the breadline.

The report comes as Labour branded Education Secretary Michael Gove an “absolute disgrace” for suggesting people using food banks had only themselves to blame.

In a major study on poverty in Europe, Oxfam said the UK Government’s economic policies had “hit the poorest the hardest”.

“Austerity programmes implemented across Europe – based on shortsighted, regressive taxes and deep spending cuts, particularly to public services, such as education, health and social security – have dismantled the mechanisms that reduce inequality and enable equitable growth," the report, A Cautionary Tale, said.

“The poorest have been hit hardest, as the burden of responsibility for the excesses of past decades is passed to those most vulnerable and least to blame.”

It said that women had been especially badly hit because of the cuts to public sector jobs.

“In the UK, for example, 1.1m public sector jobs are planned to be cut over the period 2010-18. Of these, it is expected that twice as many women as men will lose their jobs, as women account for 64% of the UK public sector workforce,” the report said.

And it warned that across Europe the number of people in poverty could rise from 25m to 146m by 2025 - a third of the European Union population.

Oxfam’s Max Lawson said: “Austerity is making an already bad economic situation far worse in the UK and across large parts of Europe.

"Cuts to social security and public services are combining with falling incomes and rising unemployment to create a deeply damaging situation in which millions are already struggling to make ends meet.

“The unprecedented rise in the number of Britons needing emergency aid from food banks is just one example among many of how poverty is on the march in the UK.”

Ed Miliband yesterday turned on the Tories after Mr Gove said some families were only using food banks because they could not manage their finances.

The Labour leader challenged David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions to say if he agreed with the Cabinet minister.

“Here is the reality - you want to give maximum support to millionaires so you give them a tax cut. But it’s a different story for those who go to food banks," said Miliband.

“And we know what this Government thinks of people who go to food banks because the Children’s Secretary said that people who go to food banks only have themselves to blame.

“It just shows how out of touch this Conservative Party is. Now we would all like to hear - do you agree with your Children’s Secretary?”

He added: “The Prime Minister neither defended the Children’s Secretary’s comments, nor distanced himself from them. Let me just tell you, the Children’s Secretary is an absolute disgrace.”

Pointing at the Government frontbench, he added: “Let’s see any of them try to live on £150 a week and then we will see what happens.

“We have one million young people out of work, unemployment up in half the country, millions of people worse off while millionaires get a tax cut.

"For the few, not the many, you are a two-nation Prime Minister.”

Speaking later, the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin backed Mr Gove’s insulting claim, saying it would sometimes “absolutely be the case” that families had to use food banks because of their own financial mismanagement.

Mr Gove’s wife, the journalist Sarah Vine, revealed yesterday how her husband and her children had spent the summer packing the family fridge with “giant multi-packs of crisps; fizzy drinks; luxury coleslaw and an insane amount of sugary cereal.”

Citizens Advice Chief Executive Gillian Guy said: “It is appalling to suggest the rise of food banks is due to poor financial management.

“It’s a smack in the face to families who are working hard but can’t make ends meet, leaving them with no other option but to turn to food banks to feed their families.

“These comments are completely misjudged.”