Labour have failed on Social Mobility, says Nick Clegg

29 January 2008

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg today accused the Labour Party of abandoning its traditional supporters, leaving Britain 'shamed by the scars of poverty and social deprivation.'

In his speech on social mobility in twenty-first century Britain, Nick Clegg told the Public Management and Policy Association in London today: 'Those people who have gained least from a decade of Labour government are the same people that Labour needs most.'

Speaking the day before the Daycare Trust releases its report on the costs of childcare in Britain, he called for all parents to be made aware of their childcare entitlements.

A full copy of the speech is below (check against delivery)

 

"Thank you all for coming here today.

And thanks also to the Public Management and Policy Association for inviting me.

The PMPA serves as a valuable forum for policy makers and professionals to share their ideas on the future of public services in the UK.

And we need that thinking more than ever.

Public services in the UK face ever greater demands

Higher expectations, growing demand, rising costs.

I believe that Britain can once again set the gold standard for public services.

It won't be easy.

But improving our schools and hospitals is essential -

Not only because people deserve good education and healthcare as ends in themselves -

But also because good public services provide opportunity for all.

In particular, education provides the key that can unlock human potential.

That was well understood by the baby boomer generation.

Those born into poorer families were told that education was "the way out".

That language may sound a little patronising today, but the intention was good and the results were real.

Post-war schools reform and widening access to university education opened up new horizons of choice and opportunity.

Alongside a changing economy, education led to social mobility.

But we've lost that.

And we need it back.

Because freedom and liberty mean nothing unless the barriers to progress and opportunity are removed.

That won't be an easy task.

The scale of the problem is daunting.

Today, the poorest kids in our schools get less than half as many decent GCSEs as the average.

And still less than the richest.

No-one seriously denies that poverty has in impact on educational attainment and social mobility.

Despite this, from April of this year those earning less than eighteen and a half thousand pounds and who are not entitled to tax credits will actually see their income tax rise.

Gordon Brown used his last budget to cut 2 pence off the standard rate.

But he paid for it by abolishing the ten pence rate.

That's why some of Britain's lowest earners will now pay more.

And this is set against the backdrop of a rise in child poverty by over 200,000 kids in the last year alone.

Over the past twenty years we have seen a steady flow of reports and studies that have laid bare the stark reality of Britain's entrenched social divisions.

The Rowntree Trust, the Sutton Trust, UNICEF and others have all shown beyond doubt how far Britain has regressed from its post-war vision of an opportunity society.

And I challenge any politician to say - hand on heart - that they cannot see the terrible consequences that this inflicts on our country.

In Sheffield, which includes the constituency that I represent, a child born today in the poorest ward can expect to die a full fourteen years before a child born in the richest.

And in London - one of the richest cities in the world - life expectancy drops by a year for every tube stop travelled east of Westminster.

And there are similar statistics from every major city in the UK.

Well, I say that this cannot go on.

Our society is shamed by the scars of poverty and social deprivation that are visible to the rest of the world.

And our country is crying out for a government that will truly free people to fulfil their potential.

I am determined that my party will be the one that reshapes the debate and makes change happen.

And we will do it by pursuing our agenda of liberal social justice.

What I find depressing is the way in which others have simply abandoned that aspiration.

A kind explanation is that they have committed what Gordon Brown might call "an incompetence":

That both Labour and the Conservatives have simply been defeated by the scale of the challenge and cannot find policy answers to the widening opportunity gap.

David Cameron uses the language of social mobility to soften his image.

But his statements are really crafted appeal to those voters he needs, rather than those people who need help.

His answer to what he calls the "broken society" is tax cuts for married couples, with single parents footing the bill.

And the return to Victorian-style welfare where unreasonable demands are laid at the door of the voluntary sector.

Social mobility is not a Tory priority.

And nor, astonishingly, is it a priority for Labour.

Those people who have gained least from a decade of Labour government are the same people that Labour needs most.

In the last three general elections, the Labour Party's support amongst the poorest people has never dropped below 48%.

And yet these are the same people who have suffered from ten years of stagnating social mobility in our country.

In the New Labour rush to hoover up Tory votes, the priorities of poorer voters have taken a back seat:.

Gordon assumes that Labour's traditional voters will stand by him:

That they are either very forgiving of failure.

Or that they simply have nowhere else to go.

But that's not true.

And the warning signs are there for Gordon Brown.

The number of people who believe that Labour very closely represents the interests of poorer voters is less than a quarter who believed it twenty years ago.

People know that Gordon Brown has let them down.

The Labour Party is like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand.

But the sands are shifting.

The British people are ready for change.

And the Liberal Democrats are ready to provide it.

We share the aspiration of the British people:

An open society that is fair and free -

For everyone, not just some of us.

Under my leadership, the Liberal Democrats will be the party that delivers on social justice.

Real social justice.

Liberal social justice.

You know, there are two great dividing lines in British politics today.

The first is between progressives and conservatives:

Those who believe in actively shaping a fairer society, and those who do not.

The second is between those who believe that big government is the key to solving social ills, and those who believe that people on the ground are often better placed to find the solutions.

My party is progressive - that is beyond doubt.

But I want to be clear about how the Liberal Democrats would deliver a fairer, freer, more progressive society -

Clear about how the Liberal Democrats would open up opportunity for our young people and increase social mobility.

If the answer lay in bureaucratic, centralising, top-down command-and-control policies Britain would be at the top of the UNICEF league, not the bottom.

Under the Conservatives, Britain was already the most centralised state in Europe.

But under Labour, micro-management of our public services has reached new heights.

Large sums have been invested in the public services, and Ministers have micro-managed those services as never before.

Yet there has been little value for money.

Failure persists.

So I come down on the opposite side of the fence from what has gone before.

I want devolve power from the centre to communities and to individuals.

I want to see local solutions applied to local problems.

And I want to see the genius of grassroots innovation set free to drive up the standards of our public services, and deliver on the people's priorities.

That does not mean an impotent state.

Government will still have a role to play.

Money must be allocated fairly to those delivering services.

Equality of access to public services must be guaranteed.

And core standards and entitlements must be firmly put in place.

But it is time to limit central government and allow innovation and diversity to flourish in our communities.

That's the localism I believe in.

That's liberal social justice.

Part Two is available here.

Applicablity: due to devolution, parts of this item refer to the whole UK and parts refer to only some sections of the UK.