Keir Starmer will vow to shatter the "class ceiling" that limits working class children from succeeding.
In a speech today, the Labour leader will set out the final plank of his blueprint for Government, where he will promise to "break the link" between young people's success and their parents' earnings.
Mr Starmer is expected to say that class barriers are stifling opportunity for millions and preventing the UK from building the "jobs and industries of the future”.
Labour wants to end the snobbery around the academic/vocational divide and modernise the curriculum to equip pupils with skills for work and life.
In a speech in Gillingham, Kent, Mr Starmer will say: "There’s also something more pernicious - a pervasive idea, a barrier in our collective minds, that narrows our ambitions for working class children and says, sometimes with subtlety, sometimes to your face, ‘This isn’t for you’.
"Some people call it the ‘class ceiling’ – and that’s a good name for it. It’s about economic insecurity, structural and racial injustice, of course it is. But it’s also about a fundamental lack of respect, a snobbery that too often extends into adulthood, raising its ugly head when it comes to inequalities at work – in pay, promotions, opportunities to progress.”
Billing it as his "personal cause", the Labour leader will draw on his own working class upbringing as he vows to stamp out a culture where "who you are, where you come from, who you know, might shape your life more than your talent, effort and enterprise".
Do you think Labour's plans to boost opportunity are achievable? Vote in our poll HERE to have your say.
Under the plans, Labour would end the staffing crisis in schools which means pupils are being taught by non-expert teachers in key subjects.
Analysis by the party previously found more than one in four Physics lessons were taught by a non specialist last year, rising to nearly one in five in French, German, Drama and DT.
More than one in 10 Maths classes were led by non-expert teachers.
It comes after the Mirror revealed that Labour plans to offer early career teachers a £2,400 cash incentive to stop the exodus from classrooms.
Mr Starmer will promise to raise standards in early years for half a million youngsters to ensure disadvantaged kids don't fall behind before they arrive at school.
The plan will also include promises of skills reform and a fresh commitment to planning reform in a bid to help 1.5 million people get on the housing ladder.
Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Sutton Trust social mobility charity, said: “Labour are making all the right noises and some of the policies they have announced so far are a step in the right direction – including a focus on life skills, improving the skills businesses need and especially strengthening the teaching profession.
"But turning the tide on social mobility will take time and substantial investment. We need a national strategy to close the attainment gap and a set of evidence-based policies to remove barriers and create opportunities for young people.”
Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: "Schools have lived for many years through a deluge of policies that have been illogical, draconian and ill-informed.
"There is potential that Labour’s policy announcement marks the beginning of a new period, in which the multiple problems of the education system are addressed seriously, collaboratively and with a full understanding that significant change requires significant investment."
* Follow Mirror Politics on Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitter and Facebook.
