THE Government is betraying “the promise of Britain” by making the younger generation the first in more than a century who will grow up to be worse off than their parents, Ed Miliband said on a visit to the North-East yesterday.

For the first time, the Labour leader held his shadow cabinet meeting outside London and chose the Sage, in Gateshead, as the venue.

Before an invited audience of 300, he accused the Government of “kicking away the ladders” of opportunity for young people by scrapping education allowances, raising university fees and abandoning Labour’s guarantee of apprenticeship places.

In what was the first airing of what Labour hopes will become a big idea that will chime with worried parents, he tried to define the “promise of Britain” as if it were as central to life as the “American dream”.

He said: “It is a promise that each generation will pass to the next, a life of greater opportunity, prosperity and well-being.

“That promise is under threat as never before.”

According to Labour’s private polling, 71 per cent of voters think the next generation will have a harder life than their parents, compared to only nine per cent who say it will be easier.

In a Twitter message, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg countered: “Labour passed on to Britain’s young people a monumental economic crisis and a deadweight of debt hung around their necks.

“It beggars belief that Labour are today talking about social mobility – they presided over stagnating social mobility, increasing inequality.”

At the Sage, Mr Miliband took questions and allowed his shadow cabinet members to answer. The one that received the most applause asked the Labour leader if he would reverse the rise in tuition fees. Mr Miliband condemned the Coalition’s policy, which he said was only to raise money rather than university standards, and he advocated a graduate tax to replace it. However, he refused to make a pledge, saying: “One of the lessons of what Mr Clegg has done is not to make a false promise.”

Interviewed afterwards, Mr Miliband accepted that the last Labour Government had made mistakes such as allowing Britain to be too reliant on financial services, but said: “People are seeing that the Government has a plan to cut the public sector jobs, but now they are asking where is the plan to create the private sector jobs.

“Because the Government is going so far and so fast cutting the deficit, they are not taking steps to build jobs for the future.

“When I was Environment Secretary, I saw this area was benefitting from the growth areas of green jobs – Clipper windpower, which is making wind turbines (on Tyneside) would not have happened without One North East, which is why it is such vandalism to get rid of the regional development agencies.

They were making an enormous difference to the economy.

“Rebalancing the North- East economy is not going to happen overnight. Frankly, I do not believe that by imposing thoroughly draconian cuts then magically your economy will be rebalanced.

“It is a matter for years, if not decades. It is a long-term plan you need, not the short term approach the Government is now taking.”

Responding to a report in The Northern Echo on Thursday that Labour was planning to drop its support of the new high-speed rail lines from London to the North, Mr Miliband said: “I am a believer in high speed rail.

“I think it is important for transport and the economy, particularly for this region.”