Tories say white working-class boys ‘don’t need another Labour quango lecturing them’ as

The Tories today warned white working-class boys ‘don’t need another Labour quango lecturing them’ as the Government set up a new Whitehall ‘class unit’.

Bridget Phillipson, the equalities minister, is establishing the new unit as part of plans to place social class on a par with sex, race and disability for the first time.

It is the first time a government has specifically created a dedicated Whitehall team to reduce class inequalities and discrimination.

The new unit will sit alongside similar units covering race, gender, LGBT and disability rights.

Sitting within the Office for Equality and Opportunity, one of the new unit’s first tasks will be to impose a socio-economic duty on public bodies.

This will legally require them to consider how to improve the lives of lower-income families as part of decisions around issues like transport, services and budgets.

The Social Mobility Commission (SMC), launched in 2010 and previously known as the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, will close as part of the plans.

Bridget Phillipson, the equalities minister, is expected to announce plans to place social class on a par with sex, race and disability for the first time

The SMC was established to assess progress in improving social mobility in the UK and to promote social mobility in England.

Its closure follows a ‘comprehensive review of operations’ and is part of Labour’s drive to ‘shift energy and resources into delivering change for people more quickly’, the Government said.

Conservative MP Joy Morrissey, the shadow equalities minister, criticised Ms Phillipson’s plans and warned against pushing ‘more bureaucracy’ on organisations.

She said: ‘White working-class boys do not need another Labour quango lecturing them about identity and privilege.

‘A socioeconomic duty will simply drag businesses and public bodies into yet more bureaucracy, hamper growth and encourage class warfare instead of aspiration. 

‘Socialism does not create prosperity or equality; it divides people into competing groups and leaves everyone poorer.’

Ms Morrissey added the Tories would ‘abolish this duty and restore meritocracy to the heart of public life’.

Some of those Cabinet Office officials who currently support the work of the SMC are expected to be transferring to the new unit.

Ms Phillipson said: ‘Improving the lives of working class people is not work to be done at an arms length from Government, it must be done at the heart of Government. 

‘That’s why I’m shaking up the system, creating a new class unit to root out inequality in our society.’

Alun Francis, the current chairman of the SMC,  warned that ‘it risks being deeply patronising, to equate being working class with being disadvantaged’.

He said in a statement: ‘It is difficult to judge how effective that unit will be because we have seen no detailed plan or feasibility assessment.’

Mr Francis suggested ”class’ is a messy concept around which to organise policy’, branding it a ‘blunt tool for deciding which people and places need intervention’ and arguing there are ‘obvious problems of definition’.

He said a reformed SMC ‘would in my view have been a much more effective way forward’.

Mr Francis added the new unit ‘closed to scrutiny, lacking independence from Government, and working in isolation from the wider programme of national renewal, is unlikely to persuade the general public that the UK is solving its most fundamental problems’.