A WESTMINSTER MP has travelled to Glasgow to investigate ways of eradicating extreme poverty and the need for food banks from the city.

Wirral South MP Alison McGovern visited Scotland last Friday to meet with politicians, campaigners and service providers supporting those in poverty across the city.

Her project, Making Ends Meet, is travelling across the UK ahead of the writing of a report detailing transformative policy measures in areas such as social security which could lift families over the breadline.

With around 37 per cent of Glasgow's children living in poverty, the Labour politician said Glasgow was a perfect place to visit to get an idea of the challenges facing families.

Ms McGovern added: "All over the UK and in Scotland we have food bank use on the rise.

"People are not able to go out to work and earn enough to put food on the table.

"That is a problem and if we keep thinking 'it's alright the food banks sort it out', we won't get to the underlying causes driving use.

"Glasgow has some really special experience to trial what could work to help people in poverty, but also the way that the city has changed and grown.

"I am very interested in learning from a place like Glasgow where there has been a sense of leadership in that, if a city grows, everybody should be a part of it.

"To me, we have a duty to make sure people have enough money in their pocket to feed their family.

"The idea of the report is to identify immediate measures to tackle this."

Glasgow North East MP Paul Sweeney was one of those in attendance at the discussion, and is working with his colleague from the Wirral to provide a Glasgow input.

Alongside Pauline McNeill MSP and former council leader Frank McAveety, they put forward views from across the city on how changes to social security and policy could improve the lives of Glaswegians.

It is hoped the report will shine a light on areas where people's lives could be improved through political work.

He believes with the ongoing Brexit debate, issues affecting the people of Glasgow on a daily basis are not being addressed.

Mr Sweeney added: "I think there is a yearning for us to get a focus back on our issues.

"The stress that people feel in their lives is not being focussed on the real things that could solve these problems.

"This is about reforming the labour market, ensuring we have communities that are able to build economic power.

"We're talking about moving away from the onus being on the individual and having much more innovative ways of ensuring of having more universal benefits and strategies to do that."

The report written following the Making End Meet discussions will be released in September.