Mobility report: 'Destiny fixed at birth'
Updated on 21 July 2009
An inquiry headed by former cabinet minister Alan Milburn concludes that Britain has, if anything, become more unequal since Labour came to power. Jane Dodge reports.
The former health secretary reports that professions are drawing talent from an ever narrower and richer segment of society
People joining the top professions such as medicine and the law are overwhelmingly from wealthy families, benefitting from a costly education that helps them ooze self-confidence.
Equally bright but less well-off contemporaries simply cannot compete.
The solution, says the report, is to push poorer pupils from primary age throughout their schooling to aim higher and give them financial help once they get to the top universities.
