No cut in wages to compete with India: Chancellor

At the Labour Party's meet in Brighton, Gordon Brown said UK will raise skills to challenge countries like India.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has almost put the lid on the controversy over the offshoring of jobs to India. At the Labour Party's annual conference in Brighton, he categorically said he would not compete with economies like India and China by lowering wages, instead he added the UK would challenge countries like India and China by "raising our skills."

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During his most crucial speech at the Conference, which was in a way push for the general elections next year, Brown said he would give "a second chance in education for all". He said he would guarantee to everyone "the resources and the learning facilities to acquire the skills they need".

Brown told delegates: "We will, at the coming election, make a historic promise - by moving beyond the voluntarists system of training that has failed, by extending nationwide our employer training pilots [we] will make a reality of a second chance in education for all. For the first time guaranteeing to every single member of the workforce and every unemployed man and woman who is without basic skills the resources and the learning facilities to acquire the skills they need."