THE Tories are to begin a campaign in the new year to revive opportunities for social mobility in Britain, which they claim has ground to a halt under Labour.

The push will be led by David Davis, the shadow home secretary, who uses an article in today’s Sunday Times to attack the government for erecting numerous barriers in the tax and benefit system for poorer people wishing to advance in society.

He contrasts this with the situation in his youth, when he says there was a “vigorous climate of opportunity”. Davis, a child of adopted parents who went to state school writes: “When it comes to opportunities for the least well off, our society is flatlining.”

Davis and David Cameron, his party leader, are setting up a taskforce to investigate why poorer families find it difficult to advance. They hope this will help the party to win working class votes and, Davis writes, “make 2007 the year the Conservative party gets to grips with social mobility”.

Davis’s words are echoed by Cameron, who uses a new year message to accuse Labour of entrenching the class system, “sending social mobility into reverse”.

He also uses his message to portray Gordon Brown as the “dark side” of Labour and to warn that the chancellor would use 2007 to play on the “politics of fear and division” and introduce new taxes.

In a sign that social mobility is likely to become a political issue next year, John Reid, the home secretary, has warned that Labour must identify with the “ambitions and aspirations” of working families. He said his party could lose the next election if, post-Tony Blair, it returns to “old Labour” roots.

Reid will tell supporters this week: “It is vital we show people we understand their aspirations.”

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