Training | 2009.06.22
Divided, Labour gives the Tories a free ride. We must unite and call their bluff | Ed Balls
We\'ve been playing into their hands. It\'s time to join in stressing crucial policy contrasts – such as funding for young people
If the last few weeks teach us anything, it\'s that a Labour party divided and turning in on itself simply lets the Tories off the hook. Less than a year before the election, the opposition has not been subject to anything like the kind of scrutiny they deserve – or that Labour was put under before 1997.
David Cameron is playing the public for fools and, frankly, the centre-left have let him get away with it too long. We must now unite and turn our fire on the Tories. Every day we fail to do so plays into their hands. The Tories\' desperation to force an early election as a referendum on MPs\' expenses proves they want to campaign on anything other than a choice between policies and priorities.
But politics is – and always has been – about choices. Voters have a right to know what the different parties competing for office would do. Those who claim it is old-fashioned to talk about "dividing lines" in politics are basically saying all mainstream parties are the same. That suits the Tory desire to get elected by stealth, but it\'s a dangerous nonsense.
The political choice in my area – whether on schools, apprenticeships or children\'s services – is stark. Take our commitment to fund a place at school, college or in training for every 16- and 17-year-old who wants one.
It\'s a bold pledge, and with a rising number of under-18s wanting to stay on in education or training during the recession, rather than enter a difficult jobs market, it\'s a challenging one to meet. Although we had budgeted last year for a record number of young people in post-16 education, the numbers have been even higher than expected – more than we had funds to support.
Before the budget, I rightly came under pressure from schools and colleges to find the extra funding, and the Tory schools spokesman, Michael Gove, delighted in mock indignation at the shortfall. Yet when I asked him whether the Tories would themselves commit to funding all the extra places, he went strangely quiet. And when we succeeded in securing £655m of extra funding in the budget so that every 16- and 17-year-old who wants to continue in education or training will indeed have their place guaranteed and paid for by the government, the Tories were equally silent.
Despite six public letters from ministers, Mr Gove still refuses to match our guarantee for young people. The fact is that while we will fund all under-18s who want to stay in education or learn a trade, the Tories will only fund some.
If the Tories were in charge, 55,000 young people who we will guarantee a place in education or training this September and next would instead have their funding withdrawn. Just as they did in the 1980s, the Tories are prepared to abandon a generation of young people.
The reason they cannot match our investment is because the Tories are committed to cutting spending – not just in the future, but right now in the middle of a recession. Instead of investing so we can recover more quickly and more strongly, the Tories are ideologically wedded to cutting spending to fund tax cuts for the few.
It wasn\'t easy to secure that extra funding for under-18s. As the chancellor has made clear, public finances will be under greater pressure in the coming years. My department is making significant efficiency savings next year, and there will be tough choices ahead.
But regardless of the state of the economy, David Cameron has made clear he would always spend less than Labour and is committed to cut spending by a devastating 10% on education and children\'s services. At the same time, he insists that his priority – come what may — is an inheritance tax cut for the 3,000 richest estates.
So the dividing line at the next election won\'t simply be about Labour investment versus Tory cuts. It will also be a debate about values and priorities: between a Labour party that has asked the wealthiest to pay a little more to help the most vulnerable through the recession, and a Conservative party that would cut apprenticeships and close Sure Start centres to give millionaires a tax break.
And there will be a choice on public service reform too. Mr Gove gave us a foretaste yesterday of the Tory approach, setting out a policy that would make it impossible to compare primary schools. He not only wants to slash spending, but end accountability – taking us back to the days when local schools were not only starved of funds but parents had no idea how they were performing.
And for schools read hospitals, as the Tories propose ditching Labour\'s commitments on waiting times and specialist care, all with a view to slashing the spending it takes to achieve them.
It\'s time for the Tories to come clean and be put under proper scrutiny, and that\'s a responsibility for the media too. Before the budget, newspapers led on the sixth-form funding shortfall, quoting denunciations from Mr Gove. Since then, barely a column inch has been written about the Tories\' refusal to match the very funding they were demanding we find. That shows how the expenses scandal and Labour rows have dominated the political debate in recent weeks, but it also shows the extent to which the Tories get a free ride on policy.
As the election draws nearer, that has to change, and it is our duty as progressives to make it happen. Parents, schoolchildren and young people will never forgive us if we don\'t.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/14/labour-tories-policies
