Tory taskforce set up to tackle poverty has met just ONCE in 14 months

from The Mirror

By Bob Roberts,

Tory promises to help the poor were last night exposed as a sham.

A special Conservative Party taskforce set up 14 months ago to tackle poverty met for only the first time last month.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis had pledged in December 2006 to bring in policies to help the most deprived families.

But reports reveal the January 2008 meeting was the taskforce's first one.

Labour Minister for Children Beverley Hughes said: "This says everything you need to know about the Tories' approach to poverty.

"It shows that when you get past the warm words, the Tories aren't serious about helping make our country fairer."

In 2006, Mr Davis said: "I am undertaking to make 2007 the year in which the Conservative Party gets to grips with social mobility.

"I am setting up a taskforce, which will include people with experience of dealing with the barriers to opportunity that face the young, to investigate in more detail why social mobility is declining and what can be done to reverse the decline."

The Tories came under fire again yesterday after their promises of a new drive to help jobless young men.

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Chris Grayling had said Britain was developing a "Jeremy Kyle generation" of unemployed, welfare-dependent men with low skills.

But Labour Welfare Minister Stephen Timms hit back, saying: "Youth unemployment is down by almost 37 per cent since 1997."