Poor families with children under five will be helped, Labour says

More childcare options and resources will be given to poor families with young children if Labour is re-elected, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Yvette Cooper, the minister in charge of policies on combating social exclusion, told the paper under-fives would be a central election theme.

Labour's manifesto is due to be published within weeks.

"If you are looking for an important theme for a third term, I think you have to think about children first at the beginning of life," Ms Cooper said.

'Filling the gap'

"The welfare state has always missed out the under-fives.

"It covers maternity services and bits of immunisation, but it misses that age group. We ought to be filling that gap."

Ms Cooper added that if under-privileged children of this age can be helped than "their chances in life will be greatly enhanced and society's divisions lessened".

A Cabinet committee chaired by Chancellor Gordon Brown is co-ordinating the education department spending review which is said to include a cash boost to expand Sure Start, a scheme that helps children and their parents in underprivileged areas.