Ten-point plan announced to promote ‘work hard ethics’

A report published today by Conservative MP Dominic Raab has identified a series of measures aimed at ensuring those who work the hardest are given the greatest chance to succeed.

The plan includes proposals to employ former members of the Armed Forces in inner city schools to instil a sense of discipline coupled with pastoral care, as well as providing English classes for refugees to help them integrate in British society.

Mr Raab, the MP for Esher and Walton in Surrey, also urged the Government to extend the zero per cent band on stamp duty to £250,000 to help first-time buyers get a foot on the housing ladder. Other plans include giving VAT tax breaks to charities which support disaffected youngsters, and reinstating the Young Apprenticeships scheme so that non-academic children have a better range of vocational options.

Mr Raab has estimated the cost of his action plan for meritocracy would be in the region of £1.6bn. However, he stressed the cost which would be covered six times over by a range of regulatory and bureaucratic reforms that he lists which would save at least £10bn.

He said: “The plan provides people with talent and tenacity to progress.

“It is about a meritocracy rather than positive discrimination, which can be in itself socially divisive. This is about promoting an ethos that would provide a leg-up rather than a hand-out culture, that the people who work hardest are given the best opportunities possible.”

Mr Raab, who was an international lawyer before entering the House of Commons, claimed that costs could be saved by reining in the Health and Safety Executive and streamlining government departments.

He claimed Labour had failed to boost opportunities within society while in power but admitted the current Government’s policies had so far been ad hoc, due in part to it being a coalition.

His report, called Unleashing the British Underdog –10 bets on the little guy, is published today by the Centre for Policy Studies.

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