5:03am Friday 16th May 2008
By Rob Merrick
THE Tories were accused of stigmatising poor North-East parents last night after they said many resembled the feckless star of the TV show Shameless.
Tory work spokesman Chris Grayling criticised irresponsible mothers and fathers who, like the anti-hero Frank Gallagher on the Channel 4 programme, failed to teach basic skills such as talking and table manners, or the value of work.
Mr Grayling said such parents were concentrated in pockets of the North-East where nearly 40 per cent of households had no one in full-time work.
He highlighted the parliamentary constituencies of Houghton and Washington East (39 per cent), Middlesbrough (38), Stockton North (37), Hartlepool (37) and Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (37) as problem areas let down by Labour.
The national average is 25 per cent, with the North-East average at 29 per cent.
Mr Grayling said: "Many parts of our society no longer know how to bring up children. We live in a country where, in many places, Frank Gallagher-style parenting has become the norm and not the exception.
"Frank's kids might have turned out all right, but that was more luck than good judgment, and no thanks to him.
"There are too many communities where parents no longer know what good parenting is."
But the Tory spokesman was quickly condemned by a children's charity, which said his comments mirrored the party's past attacks on lone parents, an attitude that Mr Grayling has now apologised for.
Clare Tickell, of the National Children's Homes charity, said: "Any use of negative labels to describe vulnerable parents risks stigmatising and isolating those most in need.
"The fear of being labelled a bad parent deters adults from seeking help, perpetuating the problem of repeating bad parenting skills across the generations. It is time to move on from labelling and punishing parents to providing proper support."
In Shameless, 42-year-old Gallagher is described as constantly "roaring drunk, angry and self-pitying" and as "the biggest kid of the family".
Mr Grayling said: "There is an absence of parental ambition and of a knowledge of how to parent."
Quoting a headteacher he met in a former mining town, he said: "She told me of children who can barely talk because nobody has ever talked to them.
"Children arrive who have never eaten at a table, they have never eaten with a knife and fork - they have barely ever eaten a proper meal."
Mr Grayling acknowledged "structural economic change" in the Eighties, when unemployment rose to three million under the Conservatives, but said: "We are past that now -it is two or three generations later."
Saying work was available, he added: "People are living with a glass wall around them, in workless households dependent on benefits."
The interview came as the Conservatives prepared to step up their plans to tackle worklessness, including the 2.6 million incapacity benefit claimants, which the party is convinced will be a big vote-winner.
Mr Grayling plans centres where private companies will be paid by results, offering long-term support, but benefit cuts for those who refuse help.
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