Tens of thousands of children face being swept into devastating poverty as the UK grapples with the coronavirus pandemic - with families already "cut adrift" by cruel benefit changes.
Today, a new study reveals that parts of the north and the Midlands have endured the steepest rises in the number of children living below the breadline in the past five years.
Research by Loughborough University sheds light on the shameful crisis, with 4.2 million children estimated to be in poverty across the UK.
The "horrifying" data found the poverty rate has risen fastest in the North East, and where it now affects nearly a quarter of children.
Horrified MPs in the region have voiced their anger at the government for failing families in their constituencies.
Heaviest hit has been Middlesbrough, where more than four in 10 children are classed as being below the breadline, even before housing costs are taken into account.
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Researchers found 42.4% of kids are affected - a huge increase on the 26.7% in 2014/15.
Glasgow, Newcastle, Oldham, Bolton, Birmingham and Leeds are among the towns and cities that have seen the steepest rises.
Middlesborough MP Andy McDonald told Mirror Online: "Sadly I’m not surprised at this report’s findings as this fits with every other measure of deprivation showing Middlesbrough at the wrong end of the table.
“Too many families in Middlesbrough are poor because of the impact of failed economic and social policies of Tory Governments since 2010."
And he continued: “Austerity has hit places like Middlesbrough hardest. Even the Tories have woken up to the lack of fairness revealed by glaring regional inequalities but its they who have made it increasingly worse ever since they came back into power."
And he warned that unless the government properly supports struggling families, it will get "a great deal worse".
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Mr McDonald said: "It was bad enough before the Covid19 crisis but the pandemic not only exposes all of that, it will in all likelihood makes things a lot worse."
Labour MP Chi Onwurah, who represents Newcastle Central, told Mirror Online she is "horrified, but not surprised" at the figures.
The analysis shows that the child poverty rate has risen from 25.8% to 37.1% - the third highest increase in Britain.
She said: "What's horrifying is that we're the sixth richest nation in the world, and yet this is happening.
"A significant proportion of children in poverty have at least one parent in work, so what the last 10 years of austerity have done is shown that work doesn't pay anymore."
Ms Onwurah said that the coronavirus pandemic is making the situation even more desperate for struggling families.
She said: "My casework has gone up hugely since the coronavirus outbreak, there are a lot of people who have lost their jobs, or they're carers for family members and are scared to go out.
"We've had a huge surge in food bank useage.
"My concern is that we won't now see rises in the jobs that people need, and there won't be enough training and support to get them into work."
She said many of her constituents have not had a pay rise since 2009, and a five-week wait for Universal Credit is pushing many into poverty.
Since 2015 the number of children living in poverty in Britain has risen by 400,000 before housing costs are taken into account - meaning one in six children, or 18%, live in affected homes.
Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions reveal that 2.7 million children were living in poverty in Great Britain in March last year.
And the picture is even more bleak after housing costs are taken into account, with the figure rising to 4.2 million in the UK under the Tories - 600,000 more than a decade ago.
Campaigners warn that unless the government takes steps to ease the burden on families, the coronavirus pandemic will make the situation even worse.
The Daily Mirror is running a Give Me Five campaign - calling on Boris Johnson to urgently address the unfolding tragedy across Britain.
We initially called for child benefit to be hiked by £5 a week - but our charity partners now say the effect of the pandemic is so bad that the government needs to bring in a £10 increase instead.
The West Midlands saw child poverty levels rise from 19.1% to 23.8%, while the North West went from 18.5% to 23%.
However the proportion stayed the same in the East Midlands, at 16.6%.
And it fell slightly in Wales and the South West, the figures show.
Anna Feuchtwang, chief executive of the National Children's Bureau, who chairs the End Child Poverty group, said: "We may all be experiencing the storm of Coronavirus together, but we are not all in the same boat.
"The government’s data shows the extent to which over the past four years, children in low income families have been cut adrift and are already experiencing unacceptable hardship through cuts and freezes to the benefits system.
"Our country’s children are now at severe risk of being swept deeper into poverty as a result of the pandemic and lockdown.
"This is why we are asking the government to strengthen the social security system which is there to hold us steady during tough times, by immediately increasing household income for those least well-off.
"Ending child poverty must be at the heart of the Government’s plan for economic recovery, so that when this crisis is over all children can enjoy a life free from poverty in which they are healthy, can thrive at school and have opportunities for the future."
Researchers have warned that as housing costs are not taken into account, the scale of the problem in London - where the cost of living is highest - is not emphasised.
But the capital features strongly in figures showing the number of children in poverty even if one adult is in work.
In Putney, more than 75% of children in poverty are in working families, while that figure stands at 72.1% in Tooting.
More than two in three children are living in poverty in parts of Birmingham, alongside four in five children in parts of Greater Manchester.
And in London, 400,675 children were below the breadline in March 2019.
The child poverty figure ranges from just 6% in Elmbridge, Surrey, to 38% in places like Oldham in Greater Manchester and Pendle in Lancashire.
Labour MP Lucy Powell, who represents Manchester Central, previously accused the Tories of failing a generation.
She told Mirror Online: “Rising child poverty is a direct result of choices by successive Conservative Ministers to reduce financial support for families in and out of work.
"Falling child poverty was one of the legacies of the last Labour government, yet a decade of Tory rule has shamefully reversed that trend."
