Labour has driven social inequality up to levels unseen since Victorian times, and the Conservatives are now �the only party that can tackle poverty�.

Labour has driven social inequality up to levels unseen since Victorian times, and the Conservatives are now "the only party that can tackle poverty", a senior member of David Cameron's Shadow Cabinet claimed yesterday.

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Chris Grayling unveiled a five-point plan to help young people from disadvantaged inner-city backgrounds break through the "glass walls" that trap them in poverty and under-achievement.

Launching a strategy paper entitled Uniting Britain's Divided Cities, he told business leaders in Liverpool that restoring social mobility was "one of the historic challenges of our time" and would be a priority for a future Conservative government.

Labour, however, accused the Tories of having only Victorian solutions to the problems of the urban poor. They warned that the Conservatives would leave Britain's cities more divided by cutting tax credits and the New Deal and failing to commit to child poverty targets.

The Liberal Democrats said that the problems of deprived urban areas had only worsened under the previous Conservative administration.

Speaking after a visit to disadvantaged estates in Wavertree, Liverpool, Mr Grayling said that conditions in many British cities now echoed the bleak, violent films Kidulthood and Adulthood, with a sub-culture of poverty, deprivation and alienation existing side-by-side with areas of prosperity and success.

Millions of foreigners have come to the UK and found work and wealth, while native residents of cities such as Liverpool remain jobless and trapped in "benefit dependency", he said The financial gap between the rich and poor has grown to its widest for generations and inequalities in life expectancy are greater than at any time since the Victorian era.

Meanwhile, Britain has "the lowest level of social mobility in the developed world", with poor children less likely to escape their backgrounds than they were in the 1950s.

A "parallel culture" of extreme deprivation and social alienation exists in pockets of poverty where generations do not work, children often have no stability in their family lives and no parental interest in their schooling - gang culture offers them their only framework and drug-dealing the main business, said Mr Grayling. He said: "We now need to deploy Conservative means to achieve progressive ends. We are now the only party that can tackle poverty, that can rebuild social mobility in Britain."

Mr Grayling set out plans for a network of back-to-work centres run by local voluntary groups in deprived areas; an intensive programme of early intervention in primary schools to help children who fall behind, tough new measures to tackle crime in disadvantaged areas, a voluntary National Citizens' Service to offer teenagers worthwhile activities and support for voluntary social organisations.

But Labour's Welfare Reform Minister, Stephen Timms, said: "Chris Grayling talks down our great cities with Victorian comparisons, but it's not clear whether the Tories have anything other than Victorian solutions.

"For all the talk about child poverty, they won't commit to targets to abolish child poverty. For all the talk about social mobility, the Conservative Party social mobility taskforce under David Davis did not meet for more than a year and still hasn't produced any policies "For all their talk about the voluntary sector, Oliver Letwin has revealed that their agenda isn't about harnessing the voluntary sector's energy and expertise, but about saving money. And in the end, our cities would be more divided if the Tories got the chance to cut tax credits and the New Deal."

Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions spokeswoman Jenny Willott said Mr Grayling was "just rehashing old announcements". She added: "When will the Tories admit that the problems in deprived cities got worse in the 1990s when they were in charge?"