Don't Leave Us Behind: Why babies like Polly need action now to give them a fair start in life

Just 20 minutes into 2022, Polly Hamilton was the first baby of this year to be born at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

For Salford parents Joe Hamilton and Jess Bellamy, the 9lb 3oz bundle was the perfect gift that money can't buy.

But while they will do everything within their power to make sure their daughter has a good life, the sad reality is that her life expectancy is more than 10 years less than a child living in a more affluent suburb in the south of England.

And money, along with education and health are just some of the many factors that come into play.

Today the Manchester Evening News and other Reach titles across the North and Midlands are joining forces to call for change, to make sure that no child is left behind.

Among all of the government's Levelling Up rhetoric, the difference in life expectancy is perhaps the starkest indication that action is needed - and needed now.

The government is aiming to create a society where a baby born in Bolton, Wallsend or Birkenhead has the same chances of a good life as one born in Surrey Heath, the affluent borough represented by Boris Johnson's Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove.

But in reality, England is as far away from this ideal as anyone could imagine.

Children in left-behind parts of the country - like Polly and those shown on the front pages of our newspapers on Tuesday - are far more likely to leave school lacking good qualifications, have a low-paying job, suffer ill health and ultimately die early.

Little of this is new but the unique circumstances of the 2019 General Election - making seats that had long been Labour strongholds winnable for the Conservatives - created a political, as well as economic and moral, motivation to take concerted action.

After a