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Clegg: despite cuts coalition will improve lives

By Channel 4 News

Updated on 18 August 2010

Nick Clegg sets out plans to tackle social mobility inequality and insists that despite cuts the coalition will improve people's lives. Political Correspondent Cathy Newman writes that the key test for the Liberal Democrats is yet to come.

Deptuy Prime Minister Nick Clegg delivers speech on social mobility reform (Getty)

Mr Clegg called on parents to take an active interest in their children's future, as engagement in education was a major factor determining whether a person is "trapped" by their background.

In a major speech on social mobility Mr Clegg said initiatives such as a "pupil premium" would be introduced to ensure "no one is held back by the circumstances of their birth".

The pupil premium will target children from disadvantaged backgrounds so they have access more care and extra schooling. The scheme will "help pupils overcome the accident of birth", Mr Clegg said.

He said the government was determined to tackle the "educational apartheid" between vocational and academic learning, as well as reforming higher education funding to ensure access for students from poorer backgrounds.

The deputy prime minister accused Labour of spending "huge sums" on welfare for low-income households without any "discernable impact" on the life chances of their children.

Today's address, titled Closing the Gap: Building an Opportunity Society, came as the coalition marked 100 days in office.

The deputy prime minister gave no firm answer to reports suggesting that cuts to welfare benefits would affect the annual heating allowance for those aged over 60.

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He said decisions on welfare reform were yet to made, and that it would be addressed in the spending review later this year. "This government is about much more than cuts", he said rejecting criticism that the coalition's only goal was cutting public spending.

"Our determination to fix the deficit is matched by our determination to create a more socially mobile society," he said. Actions to improve life chances for people across the country would be for the "long term" and take "years, if not decades, to bear fruit".

Political Correspondent Cathy Newman said that the real test for the Liberal Democrats on addressing social equality will come when the full review of government cuts is published later this year.

"The Lib Dems in the government have been worried for a while that the coalition has become dominated by talk of cuts," writes Cathy Newman.

"Today, Nick Clegg tried to redress the balance by insisting that the Lib Dems aren't just in power to slash the deficit, but to slash social divisions too.

"The key test though is what comes out of October's spending review. If the cuts hit the less well off too hard - and Nick Clegg fails to secure enough money for the pupil premium - the Lib Dems will know they've failed."

The coalition government 100 days in
It is 100 days today since they emerged blinking into the sunlight of the Rose Garden to announce the marriage of the century: the coalition cabinet, writes Broadcaster Peter McHugh for Channel 4 News.

The cynics said it would never last, but here we are with just four years and nine months to the next election and the coalition of the brave is still going.

Indeed this week we can write the words that no-one ever thought they would ever see, apart we suspect, from the person himself.

Nick Clegg is in charge!

Read Peter McHugh's article in full here.

He also officially confirmed the appointment of former Labour cabinet member Alan Milburn as an independent reviewer on social mobility. The former health secretary will report annually on efforts to boost social mobility across government public bodies, including the NHS and universities.


Mr Clegg said Mr Milburn would hold the coalition's "feet to the fire" and assess the success of the government's attempts at carrying out its social mobility strategy. His first report will be put before parliament in September 2011.

News of the Mr Milburn's role provoked anger from senior Labour figures, including Lord Prescott, who labelled his for former cabinet colleague a "collaborator".

Earlier this week Mr Clegg defended the appointment saying Mr Milburn was "not joining the government".

"What I've asked him to do...is to act as an independent reviewer of how not only the Government, but public bodies, universities, the NHS, everybody, is doing to boost what I think is one of the most important things of all, which is social mobility," the deputy prime minister said.

Speaking at an event organised by the CentreForum think-tank, the deputy prime minister said: "Under Labour huge sums of money were spent pushing low-income households just above the statistically defined level of household income - sometimes by just a few pounds a week - but with no discernible impact on the real life chances of the next generation.

"Tackling poverty of opportunity requires a more rounded approach. Welfare reform, for example, should be based on the need to improve people's lives, not just raise their incomes.

"And I know this is what is animating the work of Iain Duncan Smith at the Department for Work and Pensions."

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