According to Press Association: British communities are in danger of becoming increasingly ghettoised by ethnicity and wealth, a Labour MP is to warn.
Former
frontbencher Chuka Umunna will say many affluent workers do not even know any
benefit claimants and regard them as a "different species".
The speech
which will be given in London is set to launch a new All Party Group on Social
Integration, Mr Umunna will also insist Labour needs to recognise that
immigration can damage community cohesion unless it is properly managed.
Levels of
integration haven't kept pace with our growing diversity," the Streatham
MP will say. "Too often, people from different ethnic, socio-economic and
age groups are living side-by-side but aren't actually mixing with one another
or leading interconnected lives.
"And
there are worrying signs that the income and lifestyle gap between the rich and
poor in our society may continue to widen.
"I
believe that we are at a crossroads. If we don't take action now to bridge the
divides in our communities, we run the risk that they will grow into
gulfs."
Mr Umunna
will say rising inequality is one of the "most pressing problems facing
our nation", and is "compounded by the growing segregation of
different class groups".
"It's
no wonder we've wound up with TV programmes like Benefits Street - produced by
well paid people who are not on benefits - which treat people who claim
unemployment benefit like a different species," he will say.
"It's
no wonder that so many more newspaper column inches are devoted to those who
stand accused of cheating the benefits system than middle class bankers who
dishonestly rig entire financial systems at everyone else's expense to line
their own pockets on a grand scale.
"It's
no wonder we have an utterly toxic political debate on social security, which
too often ignores the impact of low-paid work and the cost of living, and ducks
the challenge of addressing the real barriers which people face in getting back
to work - zeroing in instead on the criminal minority who set out to scam the
system."
Mr Umunna is
to accuse ex-work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith of presiding over
"the biggest programme of misery for the disabled, the poor and those in
need for a generation".
He will add
that, although Mr Duncan Smith now appears to recognise that he was
implementing "arbitrary and unfair" policies, polls suggest the
"harsh policy agenda he has pursued commands some considerable public
support".
"Research
by the Social Integration Commission provides an insight into why this might be
the case. They show that middle class and working class people in this country
are leading very separate lives, and that far too few people who are in work
know anyone who is on benefits at all," he will add.
Mr Umunna
will say Labour has too often "shut its ears" to concerns about
immigration.
"Those
of us who champion the benefits of immigration and diversity also need to
recognise that rapid demographic change can put enormous pressure on local
public services and threaten people's sense of security and belonging," he
will say
"My own
party has too often shut its ears to these concerns. Labour has rightly argued
that immigration has brought real economic benefits, but this is an accountant's
answer to a question which goes to the heart of how people feel about modern
Britain."
Mr Umunna
will say the party must be "wary of the threat posed by petty
nationalism" but should not "lump all those who voice concerns about
the consequences of immigration into the same basket".
The MP,
whose late father came to Britain from Nigeria, will say: “We won’t solve the
challenges through resorting to the sort of scapegoating which the UK has such
a proud history of fighting against.
“In order to detoxify this debate, we need to
own up the fact that immigration can undermine community cohesion but that it
doesn’t have to, and recognise that there’s a middle way between shutting our
borders and shutting our ears to people’s concerns.”
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