MAIL readers might agree that in times of threat, Britain is strongest when people stand shoulder to shoulder against adversity.

That was what drove Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin and others to join Winston Churchill’s war cabinet to defeat Hitler.

Parliament must rise to the occasion and speak as one on Russia.

The government needs to be held to account for the fact that the tough posture already in place to deter Russia from launching attacks on UK soil seems manifestly to have failed.

However, throughout the crisis sparked by the nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the focus should not be on the past but on a strategy that will treat Russia as a rogue state in order to protect civilians.

The new strategy to contain and deter Vladimir Putin’s violence must be several degrees more robust than before.

Many Furness football fans will be horrified by the thought of withdrawing England’s participation in the World Cup, but, while it is a step not to be taken lightly, affording Russia the implicit international respect in hosting the tournament is deeply troubling while they are committing these acts in our own backyard.

The very least we should be saying now is that no minister, dignitary or senior FA official will attend matches, and we should ask our allies to make the same pledge.

In his spring statement, chancellor Philip Hammond declared it will be business as usual from the Conservative government.

Consequently it will be business as usual for hundreds of Furness children who are living below the breadline.

On Monday new figures revealed the shocking extent of child poverty in Barrow. Taken as an average across 13 wards in the borough, more than 25 per cent of our children exist in poverty.

In Central ward this figure rises to 45 per cent.

There is no magic wand to fix child poverty; if there was it would have long ago been waved.

But instead of using an improved economic position to give a helping hand to the worst off, Mr Hammond did next to nothing apart from making the confident assertion that “the best days are lying ahead” for the people of this nation.

Mums and dads looking after our poorest families will have a different outlook.

A combination of decent housing, good health provision and first-rate education are key to eradicating poverty and all three face unprecedented economic pressure from this Conservative administration.

Local agencies are working together to tackle child poverty, but almost all public sector service providers have, since 2010, lost financial and human resource with services being stripped back to statutory minimums.

The opportunities for early intervention at grant-maintained nurseries and Sure Start children’s centres are being hampered and the poorest families hit the hardest.

I am also dismayed that Labour was unable to stop the government introducing an earnings threshold for eligibility for free school meals under universal credit, restricting free school meals to families with net earnings under £7,400 per year.

This new cliff edge will mean that a million children in poverty will miss out on free school meals when universal credit is fully rolled out.

This attack on our most vulnerable youngsters will be long remembered.