Clegg: Hard road ahead for UK economy

There is a “long, hard road ahead” for the British economy, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will admit today as he closes the Liberal Democrat conference.

The International Monetary Fund’s decision to downgrade the UK’s growth forecasts has heightened fears of a double dip recession, and Mr Clegg will acknowledge the recovery is “fragile”.

But he will reaffirm his commitment to tackling the deficit, despite critics warning that the Government’s cuts programme risks choking off growth.

In his keynote speech Mr Clegg will say: “Right now, our biggest concern is of course the economy. The recovery is fragile. Every worker, every family knows that there is a long, hard road ahead.

“But we’re not in politics just to repair the damage done by Labour, to glue back the pieces of the old economy.

“We need to build a new economy. A new economy for the whole nation.”

In an acknowledgement that the Government’s austerity measures are not “easy”, Mr Clegg will tell the gathering in Birmingham: “For liberals, the litmus test is always the national interest.

“Not doing the easy thing. Doing the right thing.”

The Deputy Prime Minister will also announce plans to offer children at risk of becoming the next generation of rioters summer school places to keep them “on the right path”.

He will tell the conference that £50 million of Pupil Premium cash will be devoted to getting up to 100,000 pupils from deprived backgrounds on the two-week courses.

He will highlight the plan as part of a personal “charge for social mobility” in a bid to reassure activists that Liberal Democrat values have survived joining the Tory-led Government.

The gathering has seen increasingly vocal attacks on coalition colleagues by senior figures and Mr Clegg will say he is battling “those who do so well out of the status quo”.

He will make a point of citing efforts to “break open internships” – an area in which he and Prime Minister David Cameron have expressed highly contradictory views.

He will tell them the party faithful that fairness remains what he “cares most about” and pledge to fight for it despite backing the Conservatives’ drastic cuts.

“People keep telling me that it’s too hard. That it’s futile to push for fairness into the headwinds of an economic downturn, or that it will just take too long and I should find some politically convenient ’quick wins’ instead,” he will say.

“I’ve also encountered fierce resistance from those who do so well out of the status quo.

“But for liberals the only struggles worth having are the uphill ones. Allowing schools to put poorer children at the front of the queue for admissions, making universities open their doors to everyone, making firms work harder to get women on their boards, breaking open internships.”

In April Mr Cameron appeared to directly counter a call by Mr Clegg for more meritocratic placements when he said he was “very relaxed” about giving work experience to friends.

Setting out the summer school plans, Mr Clegg will play to Lib Dem emotions by pinning some of the blame for the summer's rioting and looting on failures in the education system.

Too many of the young people who ended up going off the rails had “fallen through the cracks” – often at the point that they moved up from primary to secondary school, he will suggest.

“Too many of these young people had simply fallen through the cracks. Not just this summer but many summers ago when they lost touch with their own future.

“So often the people who have gone off the rails are the ones who were struggling years earlier. Not least in making that critical leap from primary to secondary school.

“We know this is a time when too many children lose their way, so this is a £50 million investment to keep them all on the right path.”

Although schools will not be forced to put on summer schools, any that do not will lose part of their share of Pupil Premium cash – worth a total of £2.5 billion a year by 2015.

Aides said the format of the courses would be left to schools but could include remedial classes in core subjects, social activities and sports-based work.

It was open to headteachers to open them to better-off pupils, they said, although Pupil Premium funds are allocated on the basis of the number of poorer children on the roll.

Mr Clegg will also use his speech to launch a strongly worded attack on Labour over the party’s reliance on trade union funding – and also criticise the Tories over party funding.

He will dismiss as “risible” Ed Miliband’s pledge to take on “vested interests” and challenge the Labour leader to “put his money where his mouth is” by accepting party funding reforms.

Next week’s Labour conference will consider a reform championed by Mr Miliband, who was elected party leader on the back of union votes, which will water down their influence.

While Mr Clegg will aim to avoid further antagonising the unions by insisting their values are “as relevant as ever”, he will say they cannot be allowed “to buy themselves a political party”.

“Ed Miliband says he wants to loosen the ties between his party and the union barons who helped him beat his brother. Let’s see him put his money where his mouth is,” he will say.

“Let’s see if he’ll support radical reform of party funding. Every previous attempt has been blocked by the vested interests in the other two parties.”