THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Nick Clegg’s drive to stop privileged children with "sharp-elbowed" parents monopolising internships was undermined when he admitted securing a placement at a bank with the help of his father.The Deputy Prime Minister was embarrassed as he launched his landmark social mobility strategy, which includes at its heart a plan to open up work experience to all classes, after it emerged that he also employed unpaid interns in his parliamentary office.
Speaking at an event to launch the strategy, he said it had been “wrong” of his wealthy banker father to have secured him a placement at a Finnish bank by “having a word” with a friend who worked there.
“I think the whole system was wrong,” he added. “I am not the slightest bit ashamed of saying that we all inhabited a system that was wrong.”
Mr Clegg announced that he was banning the practice of unpaid work experience across his party after a former intern came forward to say that he had not even been paid out of pocket expenses such as travel and lunch while working for free for the Liberal Democrat leader.
The Coalition is moving to take action on the “tacit conspiracy” which sees privileged professionals give their children a leg up in life by using contacts to secure internships, which are often viewed as the first step on the career ladder.
As part of the strategy, Mr Clegg called on employers to pay interns the minimum wage, or at least reasonable expenses, to avoid excluding those who could not afford to work for free. » | Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent | Tuesday, April 05, 2011
