A fourth term Labour government will invest in skills rather than buildings, enforce the responsibility to work if people can, and give local public servants more freedom to manage, according to Liam Byrne, chief secretary to the Treasury and the minister for public service reform.

He combined his outline of a shift in emphasis for Labour with a fierce attack on David Cameron’s claims of a “broken Britain” – comparing his stance to Ronald Reagan’s assault on “welfare queens” in the US in the 1970s.