Conservatives have questioned Tony Blair’s political credibility after the Prime Minister unveiled yet another scheme to tackle social exclusion – his ninth attempt in nine years.
Following another of Mr Blair’s keynote speeches on the issue, Oliver Letwin, Chairman of the Conservative Party’s Policy Review, declared: “After nine Government Action Plans on social exclusion in nine years, people are likely to be hugely sceptical about Tony Blair announcing yet another Action Plan.”
With Mr Blair under mounting pressure from Labour MPs to declare an end to his Premiership, he travelled to York to unveil a social exclusion plan designed to ensure early intervention to stop children being left behind, to improve co-ordination between agencies, to re-define personal rights and responsibilities, and to herald less tolerance of poor performance.
“Where it is clear, as it very often is, that young children are at risk of being brought up in a dysfunctional home where there are multiple problems, then instead of waiting until the child goes off the rails, we should act early enough to prevent it,” Mr Blair said.
But Mr Letwin remained unconvinced that the Blair government would be able to deliver on social exclusion when previous promises have failed to work.
He commented: "With over a million children playing truant every year and more than a million young people not in work or full-time education, we welcome any proposals to tackle social exclusion. That’s why we’ve set up our Social Justice Policy Group to look at how we can empower social enterprises and the voluntary sector to tackle multiple deprivation.”
But with Labour MPs in revolt against the Premier’s performance, Mr Letwin added: “At the moment it is very difficult for the Prime Minister to get on with governing the country. He will not help himself do that by making a speech which almost entirely repeats another he gave to the BBC just a few days ago, or by announcing Government plans on social exclusion when we have had nine since he came to office. He really does need to do more than repeat announcements of his plans.”