Clegg warns over 'downturn victims'

In a speech to a one-day Lib Dem conference in London, Mr Clegg will say school and college leavers aged 16 to 24 look set to bear the brunt of the worsening downturn.

He will accuse Mr Brown of offering only "pointless initiatives" in response to the crisis and will call for the creation of many more new apprenticeships to offer young people hope for the future.

"For decades the prospects for young people in Britain have been bright. But this generation now faces the prospect of being the first in living memory to end up worse off than their parents. Progress is skipping a generation," he will say.

"Two million young people who've grown up under Labour now live in poverty. At a time in their lives when this generation of 16 to 24-year-olds should feel optimistic about their future they are being hit hard by the recession.

"After having already suffered under Gordon Brown's failure to sort out our education system, this generation now bears the heaviest brunt of his economic mismanagement.

"We have to make sure that this recession does not leave a poisonous legacy for teenagers and young adults. We must not allow a whole generation to end up on the scrapheap of long-term unemployment."

Mr Clegg will say Mr Brown's efforts to tackle the crisis would not create one single new permanent job. "His promise of internships to graduates does nothing to address their fear of permanent unemployment," he will say.

"He proposes creating new apprenticeships when out there in the real world thousands of existing apprentices are being thrown off their courses. And he tries to bribe businesses struggling to keep their heads above water with £2,500 to take on the long term unemployed - that won't create a single job."

Mr Clegg will say Lib Dems would scrap the Government's "ineffective bribe" and shift all the additional funding announced so far into new apprenticeships. "That's how we will ensure that the next generation is not left behind," he will say.