SOCIAL Mobility tsar Alan Milburn has called on a major national drive to ensure that people from the widest range of backgrounds are able to go to university.

Mr Milburn, the former MP for Darlington and former Health Secretary who now serves as the chair of the new Social Mobility and Child Poverty Committee, delivered a wide-ranging speech at Nortumbria University last night (Thursday, March 14).

He said: "If we want to see social progress and If we want to see social progress and economic prosperity in an increasingly competitive global market, the principle we should surely be aiming for as a country is to ensure that all those who have the ability, aptitude and potential to benefit from a university education should be able to do so."

Mr Milburn said this requires "a genuine national effort".

Schools needed to raise standards and aspirations amongst all their pupils and careers services needed to provide inspiration and encourage ambition.

He added: "It requires of our Government that it pursues policies that enable people from the widest range of backgrounds to be able to go to university.

"It requires of our country that we devote more of our national wealth to higher education. And it requires of our universities that they pursue approaches that broaden the range of those they recruit as students."

Commenting on the relatively low number of young people who get five good GCSEs in the North-East, Mr Milburn said; "I have never believed that it is ability that is unevenly distributed in our society. It is opportunity."