PM launches her ‘Shared Society’

(Haven’t we heard that before?)

THERESA MAY risks being accused of stealing David Cameron’s flagship ‘Big Society’ policy after launching her own version: the ‘Shared Society’.

In a speech to charity chiefs tomorrow, she will pledge to improve people’s lives by values based on ‘responsibility, community and family’. It bears a striking similarity to her predecessor’s Big Society campaign unveiled in 2009.

Mrs May, pictured, will be hoping her version is more successful: Mr Cameron’s was effectively shelved after it failed to convince voters.

Downing Street insists Mrs May’s Shared Society is a significant development of social policies pursued by Mr Cameron and Margaret Thatcher, who sparked controversy by declaring there was ‘no such thing as society’. A senior Whitehall source said: ‘Thatcher didn’t believe in society; Cameron wanted the Big Society to replace the state; we believe there is a role for government, but it must be shared with the public. People must help themselves but the Government must provide better schools, homes and hospitals for people above the welfare line – and this Government will.’

Mrs May will say in her speech tomorrow: ‘The Shared Society doesn’t just value individual rights but focuses on responsibilities we have to one another. It respects the bonds we share as people, the bonds of family, community, citizenship. A society that recognises the obligations we have as citizens that make our society work.’

Mr Cameron said of his Big Society in 2009: ‘Kindness, generosity and imagination have been squeezed out by the state, which has promoted selfishness and individualism. People must take responsibility for their own communities.’