Policies `U-turn' for UN

The Government appears content to sign up to a European Union call for progressive social policies to which it is opposed at home, in a submission to next month's UN social summit in Copenhagen.

Moves urged by a Brussels report, debated by the European Parliament yesterday, include a lessening of wealth inequalities, which the Government says have been exaggerated; support for the UN's International Labour Organisation, which Britain repeatedly ignores; and a link between trade and social development, in contradiction of the philosophy underpinning Britain's social chapter opt-out.

Alastair Goodlad, the Foreign Office minister, provoked fresh protests from Tory Euro-rebels when he told Denis MacShane, Labour MP for Rotherham, in parliamentary replies that the Government was "content" with the EU's position in relation to the summit and that UK and EU policies were "in line".