The fundamental test for any government is not what it says it's going to do, but what it does to make opportunity a reality for all, and not just a privilege for the few

Alistair Darling

Both William Hague and shadow chancellor Michael Portillo put great stress on the party's compassionate credentials at the Bournemouth conference.

But Mr Darling said the record of Conservative governments during the 1980s indicated that they had little interest in helping the poor out of poverty.

There was nothing to suggest that their more caring language now reflected a genuine concern, he said.

In a speech to social security experts in London, Mr Darling said: "The fundamental test for any government is not what it says it's going to do, but what it does to make opportunity a reality for all, and not just a privilege for the few."

"In the 1980s there were those who said that self-interest was socially acceptable and that exclusion was economically inevitable."

Compassionate talk not enough

He said those same people no talked about the need for compassion and inclusion "but compassionate talk alone will never lift children out of poverty".

That would only happen if governments were prepared to act, Mr Darling said.

One of the key political battles of the future would centre around those who wanted government to act in battle against poverty and those who wanted "to leave it to chance".

Opting out of the problem and leaving it simply to market forces was not only "morally wrong, but... economic madness."

Working for "eradication" of poverty

Mr Darling contrasted the Tory record with Labour initiatives, such as targeting the eradication of child poverty within 20 years, child benefit increases, the Working Families Tax Credit, the minimum income guarantee for pensioners and the New Deal for Lone Parents.

He said that already 900,000 lone mothers were in work, but the Labour government wanted to see more than a million lone parents in employment.

The government would provide extra additional funding for childcare places, up from �66m this year to �200m by 2004.

Mr Darling argued that the social security system was seen as a failure during the time of the last Conservative government because it cost too much while failing to help the poor out of poverty.

He said: "When the modern British welfare state was set up in 1945, it was genuinely popular but by the 1990s it was seen as being part of the problem, not the solution.

"Our aim is to make it popular again. Popular because it can - and must - make a difference."