Ming Campbell slams Labour's dependency Britain and its impact on the South East

In a speech to the IPPR today, Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell will pledge to take the fight on poverty to Labour's heartlands.

He will attack Labour's obsession with means-testing, which has caused a dependency culture, as well as their failure to create a decent state pension:

"Gordon Brown's strategy of mass means-testing is undermining work, saving, and families.

"If you work all your life, you now get a basic state pension which is over 25% lower than if you had not worked at all."

Sir Menzies will challenge Labour's claim that it is the party best placed to tackle poverty and inequality:

"I am determined to take the fight for a fairer Britain into the mainstream of British politics, and into the heartlands of the Labour Party.

"The Liberal Democrats must be a party not only of the affluent and compassionate middle class, but of those struggling to make ends meet."

Figures compiled by the Liberal Democrats show huge regional differentials in poverty and inequality. Moreover, In the South East nine years of Labour rule have failed to tackle the number of people not economically active in the Region and at the same time there has been a huge increase in numbers claiming Incapacity Benefit:

• In 1997 17.5% of people were economically inactive in the South East. In 2006 the figure remains at 17.4% - no change.
• In 1997 176,000 people were claiming Incapacity Benefit. This has rocketed to 199,000 when the most recent figures became available.

Commenting on these figures, Chair of South East Lib Dems Mike Simpson said:

"At national level the figures show that there are huge inequalities between the regions of the UK. In the South East all of Labour's rhetoric has failed. The number of people not contributing to the economy is exactly the same as in 1997 and there are 23,000 more people claiming Incapacity Benefit than in 1997'.

"In the speech Sir Menzies will highlight how Liberal Democrat policies differ from Labour and the Conservatives.

"With Labour wedded to dependency, and the Tories to compassionate inactivity, the Liberal Democrats are the only party that can effectively stand up for the poor and the disadvantaged."

Sir Menzies will also unveil five new Liberal Democrat ideas for tackling poverty:

1. Stop encouraging couples with children to split up:

"This is not about the state telling people how to live their lives. But it is about removing the financial penalty that low income parents incur if they choose to stay together.

"We could introduce a couple's premium into child tax credit - ending the bias against two parent families - whilst cutting child poverty at the same time."

2. Consider raising child benefit to the same level for every child in a family:

"We should consider raising the amount given to all eligible children to the same amount granted for the first child.

"This would move 300,000 children out of poverty, at a cost of £1.7 billion.

"We will meet new commitments through our current review of expenditure priorities, which will switch £15 billion each year to our priorities."

3. Reduce the age of the youngest child at which we expect lone parents to work:

"We ought to ask whether we should make changes to a benefit system that provides very little incentive or support for lone parents to return to work until their youngest child is 16 years old.

"In most other European countries, the age at which parents are expected to look for work is considerably lower.

"By asking lone parents to seek employment when their youngest child is 12 years old, we might discourage dependency and reduce child poverty too."

4. Sign up to the child poverty target and set two additional 2020 goals for:

(a) increasing child literacy and numeracy, and;

(b) halving the number of people claiming incapacity benefit:

"I can announce today that the Liberal Democrats are committed to the UK goal of ending child poverty by 2020.

"We will set two additional goals alongside the commitment to eliminate child poverty by 2020.

"The Liberal Democrats will set a new goal of improving our children's basic literacy and numeracy skills, so that they are amongst the highest levels in Europe by 2020.

"We will aim to halve the number of people claiming benefit on grounds of incapacity by 2020 - giving 1.3 million people a better chance."

5. Simplify the whole benefits system and aim to cut the number of benefits from 50 to 25 and reducing by half the number of people facing marginal tax rates of 60% or more.

"Just as we have proposed simplifying taxation, why can't we make benefits and tax credits simpler, while dramatically reducing the number of benefits?

"We will set an objective to cut 50 benefits to 25 again, as there were 30 years ago.

"Under Gordon Brown, and his strategy of mass means-testing, over 1.7 million people face higher effective tax rates than the rich will ever now pay - 60, 70, 80 or even 90%."