Miliband: Coalition policies 'kicking away the ladders' for young people
Neil Puffett
Friday, February 4, 2011
Young people in Britain will be worse off than their parents for the first time in more than a century, Labour leader Ed Miliband said today (4 February).
"For the first time in generations, there is now a real fear that the British promise will be broken and the next generation will find it harder to get on than the last," he said.
"Fewer than one in 10 people believe that life will be easier for their children than it was for them, and seven out of 10 think it will be harder. I don’t believe it has to be this way."
Miliband listed the government’s decision to scrap education maintenance allowance, raise student fees, scrap the child trust fund and the end of the future jobs fund, as examples of government "kicking away the ladders" for young people.
"It all adds up to a government that is betraying the promise of Britain to help the next generation get on," he said.
Efforts to improve opportunities for young people will be at the heart of Labour policy, he added. "My job is to show there is a different course our country can take," he said.
"It is the task, I believe, Labour has always had when it’s been at its best in moving our country forward. We have always been about a society where the promise of Britain can go beyond the most affluent — that lower- and middle-income families can guarantee a better future for their children.
"I am determined that this is the challenge that will be at the heart of the Labour Party I lead."
