Conservative and Liberal offers to cooperate on rebuilding the welfare system have been rebuffed by the Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Speaking at Prime Minister's Question Time on Wednesday, Mr Blair said it was up to the Government to work out its plans to reshape social security and get the unemployed back to work.

In their first Commons question time clash of the year, the Leader of the Opposition, William Hague, offered to back reforming the welfare state as long as certain principles were upheld.

Mr Hague said: "We will support the Prime Minister in reforming welfare if his reforms are based on the principles of ending the dependency culture, of strengthening families, of encouraging alternative provision and looking after the worse-off and disabled people".

When challenged by Mr Hague, Tony Blair hit back saying that his reform programme was already based on such principles.

"There is a specific £3.5bn programme that helps young people and long-term unemployed off benefit and into work," said Mr Blair.

William Hague's offer of help is rejected

The Labour leader also said Mr Hague's offer of support was an admission of Conservative failure during 18 years in power.

"Your government failed. I want my government to succeed," he told the Conservative leader.

Mr Blair, who promised that any reform of the welfare state would be based on helping those "genuinely in need", questioned the tactics being adopted by the Conservatives.

He said he believed the change of strategy by the Tories was a cynical move to highlight divisions within the party over the issue.

But the opposition leader William Hague told the Commons that his move was genuine.

The Prime Minister also dismissed a proposal from Liberal Democrat Leader Paddy Ashdown to create an independent commission with cross-party representation to consider welfare reform.

"We cannot load it onto an independent commission, we have got to do the thinking ourselves," he told him.
 

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