Labour promises clamp on unpaid internships

Ed Miliband will promise on Friday that a Labour government would ban companies from offering unpaid internships of longer than four weeks, as he seeks to attract younger voters.

Speaking during a trip to Lincoln, the Labour leader will say that unpaid work experience is keeping some of the most sought-after jobs out of the reach of those who cannot afford to work for nothing.

The policy is the centrepiece of Labour's youth manifesto - an attempt to claw back under-25 voters who have switched their support to the Green party in recent months.

Labour remains the most popular party among 18 to 24-year-olds, particularly students, according to opinion polls.

But the rise in popularity of the Greens has complicated Labour's efforts to lure idealistic leftwing young people who supported the Liberal Democrats in 2010.

Labour will also use its youth manifesto to promise to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote, to create 1m more "green" jobs and guarantee a paid first job to all young people unemployed for more than a year.

The party has also promised to cut university tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000 in a move that has pleased young people but angered some university vice-chancellors.

Mr Miliband believes that a clampdown on unpaid internships will help tackle the gulf in opportunities for young people from different backgrounds.

"If you want a good job in a highly prized sector you're often asked to work for free for months on end - sometimes even a year," he plans to say on Friday. "It's a system that's rigged in favour of those who can afford it."

The problem is particularly acute in certain industries such as media, the arts, fashion, finance and law, he will say. "It's not fair, it's not right and it prevents our companies drawing on all the talents our nation has to offer."

It is estimated that there are about 100,000 such placements every year, mostly in London, often requiring interns to pay their own living costs.

These are popular with young people because they can lead to a full-time paid position. Liam Byrne, shadow universities minister, has cited research suggesting that a third of graduates hired by companies have previously worked there, often as an intern.

"If you're from a low-income background, you just can't afford to do that," Mr Byrne plans to say. "The result is that the best jobs are getting locked up by those with the richest parents."

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Pressure has also been exerted by Intern Aware, a lobbying campaign led by Ben Lyons, a former history student at Oxford university. It has the sympathy of some business groups, including the Institute of Directors.

Efforts to woo young voters have been complicated by the disappearance of more than 800,000 people - mostly students and the young - from the electoral roll in the past year. Younger people are already much less likely to vote than their elders.

Mr Miliband has blamed this "democratic scandal" on coalition reforms whereby universities can no longer block-register students living in halls of residence.

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