September 18, 2002
Tony Blair today used a pre-conference speech to promise to "redistribute power, wealth and opportunity" to combat poverty and deliver public services. He repeated his government's goal of abolishing child poverty in a generation, and lifting youngsters out of circumstances where they might turn to crime. Speaking at an east London school, it was one of the first times the prime minister has used the word "redistribute" unprompted - it was previously a taboo expression in New Labour.
However, critics noted Mr Blair's seemingly "old Labour" speech comes before a tricky party conference, with party delegates angry at both Mr Blair's enthusiasm to back the US president, George Bush, over Iraq, and the government's plans for further private involvement in the public sector.
Mr Blair, launching the government's fourth annual poverty report at the Anne Tayler sure start centre in east London, said: "Our goal is a Britain in which nobody is left behind, in which people can go as far as they have the talent to go, in which we achieve true equality - equal status and equal opportunity rather than equality of outcome.
"It must be a Britain in which we continue to redistribute power, wealth and opportunity to the many not the few, to combat poverty and social exclusion, to deliver public services people can trust and take down the barriers that hold people back."
Mr Blair said today's report showed the government was making progress in tackling poverty. He stressed: "Poverty is multi-dimensional. It is not only about money. It is also about jobs, access to public services, environment and ambition. It is about education, housing, the local environment, training, jobs, your home and family life, being free from crime and drugs. So our vision for addressing child poverty is an all-encompassing one, one which straddles income, public services and jobs."
The prime minister said that since 1997 there were now 1.5 million more people in work; 250,000 fewer children growing up in homes where no one has a job; 1.4 million fewer children living in absolute poverty and more than 500,000 fewer living in relative poverty. "But there is much more to do. Our aim is, and remains, to abolish child poverty in a generation, so that in time all can share in the nation's rising prosperity," said Mr Blair. "Today's welfare state should not be a top-down paternalistic act of charity, a handout. It should be based on mutual responsibility, our rights and our duties: our right to a decent start in life, our duty to make the most of it and in any case to abide by the rules and laws of the society that we live in."
The prime minister stressed new rules would require everybody on benefit and out of work to attend "a work-focused interview" to help them into a job or training programme. "The range of options is broad. But everyone coming on to benefits will have to consider them with us. And those who opt to help themselves by taking a job will be rewarded." Mr Blair said the sure start programme was aimed at helping the youngest children in the poorest neighbourhoods and said 800 new children's centres - which combine learning with childcare services - would be set up "one in every disadvantaged area".
They would provide "early years education, parenting and family support, health services - a range of quality services all in one place". He continued: "In this way we will help lone parents, many of whom live in the poorest parts of the country, access jobs, and at the same time, address child poverty in the round. And we know it works. Working with children and their families from the earliest stages helps us address the long-term problems, the problems of unemployment, of dislocation and crime."
Mr Blair repeated his "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" slogan and detailed measures the government had taken to crack down on offenders. He added: "But tough also on the causes of crime - poverty key among them. At the same time as we toughen the criminal justice system, it is crucial to address poverty, social exclusion, unemployment, lack of education, the sense of hopelessness that is so often the breeding ground for crimes among our young people. I am not saying that every young person who grows up poor will turn to crime. But they are significantly more at risk of doing so. We need to do everything we can to help them choose a different path. Though a lot remains to be done, we have already achieved a significant reduction on street crime."
He continued: "Britain is now the fourth largest economy in the world. We have a strong economic base and record levels of employment. I believe that ensuring everyone shares in this rising prosperity is a realistic goal and we should be judged upon it. Our objectives are clear and simple: to improve people's daily lives, to give them and their children chances they would never have had, to make sure that every child of the next generation has the opportunity to flourish, regardless of where they were born, where they grow up, where they are educated. The goal of social justice remains the same, but the means of getting there is very different. Working together and mutual responsibility have to be the foundation of lasting progress and change."
The Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, Ed Davey, said: "Despite Gordon Brown's tweaking, inequality in Britain remains similar to under the Tories. Pre-conference grandstanding to Old Labour sensibilities is not a substitute for openness and honesty with the British people. If the chancellor does plan tax increases, it is up to him to set them out in his autumn statement."
The shadow chancellor, Michael Howard, accused the prime minister of wanting to "pile on yet more tax increases". He said: "The way to tackle poverty of all kinds is not by stifling the enterprise economy through rules and regulations and making everybody less well off through higher taxes. We need instead to create more ladders of opportunity to enable people to escape from poverty. That is achieved through a low-tax, dynamic economy."
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