Nick Clegg says that the Sutton Trust inspired his passion for social mobility

Rt. Hon. Nick Clegg MP, the former Deputy Prime Minister and former Liberal Democrat Leader mentioned the Sutton Trust in his opening line when addressing the House of Lords Social Mobility Committee this month. The House of Lords Committee on Social Mobility was appointed in June “to consider social mobility in the transition from school to work”. The Committee is chaired by Labour Peer Baroness Corston. Mr Clegg told the committee how committee a Sutton Trust report on social mobility several years ago inspired him to look to do more to address the issue in Government.

In Government, Mr Clegg said that he made addressing social mobility as a core part of his role in the cabinet office and cited the pupil premium and free entitlement to 15 hours of early years childcare for disadvantaged pupils as part of his legacy. Clegg complained that successive governments spent too long on tackling the symptoms of the poor social mobility in the UK rather than the source of it. He was insistent that early years intervention is the most important “engine” to addressing social mobility but commented that “everything bears on social mobility”.

The transcript for the evidence session will appear here.