Blair to scrap blueprint for social justice
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Your support makes all the difference.THE LABOUR leader, Tony Blair, is set to reject many key findings of his party's Commission on Social Justice. Some conclusions hailed as Labour's answers to key questions on tax, benefits and spending will never be adopted as party policy, he has said privately.
On the eve of his first party conference as leader, Mr Blair has moved to stress that he will adopt only some parts of the report by the commission, set up by the late John Smith. In some other areas, Mr Blair may back more radical options.
Most of the document, now being circulated among senior Labour MPs, was drafted before Mr Blair was elected leader.
Mr Blair is keen to pick up on the new thinking on pensions, where the proposals were for a universal minimum income for pensioners, topped up by occupational and private schemes.
But he is less enthusiastic about some of the proposed overhaul of the benefits system that the commission will propose. Instead the Labour leader aims for a more controversial programme to reduce poverty through work. One possibility is that some money spent on benefits could go to employers who take on the jobless.
On Tuesday Mr Blair will underline his desire for radicalism, stressing the need for his party to continue to change, by focusing on economic and social policy, getting people back to work and improving standards in public life. He will call for a 'socialism of the head and heart', based on individuals living in a 'strong and decent community of people'.
Yesterday John Prescott, the party's deputy leader, again raised the issue of taxation, arguing: 'We've already indicated that those at the high income levels are going to pay considerably more.'
But in a pamphlet issued yesterday Mr Blair said: 'People who generate ideas, jobs and wealth have nothing to fear from a Labour government.'
Mr Blair also, in a newspaper interview today, hints that he would run a cabinet in a way similar to Margaret Thatcher. He said: 'I wasn't part of her cabinet. So I really don't know how much is true about how people say it was run. I think it is important to give a sense of direction of leadership.'
Meanwhile, Peter Hain, MP for Neath and chairman of the Tribune newspaper, called for higher taxation on those who earn more than pounds 50,000 and a public investment bank with public and private money to finance investment.
'Slick presentation and snappy soundbites cannot conceal a vacuum,' he said.
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