'Collaborator' Milburn advises coalition government
Monday, 16 August 2010 11:37 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
Alan Milburn has been branded a "collaborator" after agreeing to become the coalition government's 'social mobility tsar'.
Nick Clegg is expected to announce the move on Wednesday in a major speech marking the coalition's first 100 days in power.
He confirmed today that while Mr Milburn would not joining the government he would be advising it in an unpaid capacity.
Securing the former Labour health secretary' involvement is a minor coup for the Liberal Democrats, who are trying to prove to supporters that they can secure appointments and policies when they flex their muscles.
Sources have indicated that Iain Duncan Smith won the right to retain some money from the benefits crackdown to simplifying the welfare system after the intervention of senior Lib Dem figures, including an advisor to Mr Clegg.
But Mr Milburn's return could anger Tory right-wingers concerned about the government's agenda and has already enraged Labour supporters, who see it as an act of treachery.
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott lumped Mr Milburn together with former work and pensions secretary John Hutton and former social securities minister Frank Field.
"So after Field and Hutton, Milburn becomes the third collaborator," he tweeted yesterday. "They collaborated to get Brown OUT. Now collaborating to keep Cameron IN."
Former home secretary David Blunkett is also understood to be considering working for Mr Duncan Smith as an advisor on poverty, benefit cheats and the pensions crisis.
Mr Milburn stepped down from frontline politics in 2003, when he left his role as health secretary due to an imbalance between his professional and family life. He stepped down as an MP at the last election.
It was shortly before announcing his decision to quit the Commons that he conducted a major review on the issue of social mobility for Gordon Brown, although most of his recommendations were scrapped for being too radical.
The review called for parents with children in failing schools to receive vouchers allowing them to attend a state school of their choice and rights to flexible working to be expanded to all workers.
It also proposed a national internship programme to give disadvantaged children access to the professions.
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