Doubts over success of New Deal

New figures today raised fresh questions over whether Gordon Brown's flagship New Deal policy is really working.

They showed that unemployment has actually fallen faster among people not eligible to join the £4 billion scheme for the jobless. The disclosure came as the Tories repeated their vow to abolish the scheme and accused the Chancellor of wasting billions on a pet project.

Meanwhile, Labour election chief Alan Milburn and Work and Pensions Minister Alan Johnson were holding a news conference to defend it.

They claimed the Tory cutbacks would condemn thousands of young people to long-term unemployment.

The New Deal was launched seven years ago for under-24s unemployed for longer than six months.

However, the proportion of young people among the total unemployed has risen from 29 per cent in 1997 to 42 per cent last year.