Britain's falling social mobility must end, says Euro-MP (Walsall Liberal Democrats)

Walsall Liberal Democrats <info@libdems.org.uk>

Britain's falling social mobility must end, says Euro-MP

September 14, 2008 4:14 PM

The rising gulf between rich and poor and fall in social mobility is a national scandal and must be reversed as a matter of urgency, local MEP Liz Lynne said at the LibDem conference in Bournemouth today.

Widespread evidence indicates that people's ability to lift themselves out of poverty is now lower than in most of the rest of Europe . Liz Lynne spoke out after a policy discussion at the Liberal Democrat conference, headed by experts from the political and charity fields looked at what can be done to reverse this trend.

The forum showcased the work of the independent UK Commission on Social Mobility, launched by LibDem leader Nick Clegg earlier this year.

Liz Lynne, who is Vice President of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee, recently wrote a landmark report on social protection and social exclusion across the European Union and has long campaigned for more to be done to fight child poverty and social exclusion.

Commenting after the debate Liz said:

"Despite increasing prosperity it is surprising and saddening that ten years of a Labour Government have done nothing to stop the widening gulf between rich and poor people and a decreasing ability for people to improve their own circumstances.

"Barriers to opportunity are complex and by no means purely financial. Many of the causes of social exclusion are common to countries across the European Union and I hope lessons can be learned from other Member States as I'm sure there is best practice we can take advantage of.

"Failure to act when people are unable to help themselves would be criminal and mean the continuing exclusion and alienation of millions of people."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Liz Lynne MEP recently authored a key 2007 joint report for the European Parliament on Social Protection, Social Inclusion and Social Reality Stocktaking which, amongst other things called for increased sharing of best practice among EU Member States in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. Please find the report here: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A6-2007-0400+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN

The UK Commission on Social Mobility was launched in January 2008 and is expected to report back to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg by the end of the year. The Commission is entirely independent and headed by Martin Narey, Chief Executive of Barnardo's. The Liberal Democrats will consider how to take forward its recommendations as party policy but the Commission's report and conclusions will also be published and be available to all political parties.

ENDS