PM says Deutsche Bank's Libor fine to be used for apprenticeships - Guardian

(Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron plans to announce on Tuesday that he will put Deutsche Bank's Libor fine into a new three-year fund to create 50,000 apprenticeships, the Guardian reported. Britain's markets regulator last week fined Deutsche a record 227 million pounds ($345.61 million) to resolve claims that the bank manipulated the London interbank offered rate, the benchmark interest rate used to price loans and contracts around the world. The Conservatives' scheme will be targeted at 22-to-24-year-olds who have been unemployed for more than six months. Any jobless young person who refuses the apprenticeship offer will be required to do community work, the newspaper said. "We're going to take the fines from the banks who tried to rig markets and we're going to use it to train young people and get them off the dole and into work", Cameron is expected to say in a speech in London on Tuesday, the Guardian reported. "This is about taking money off those who represent Labour's failed past and giving to those who through their hard work and endeavour can represent a brighter Conservative future". Left-wing Labour and Cameron's centre-right Conservatives are neck-and-neck in most opinion polls ahead of the May 7 election. In an email sent in response to Cameron's plans, Labour said that under the Tories, the number of young people starting apprenticeships has fallen in the last year. "The Tories have failed to match Labour's plans to guarantee an apprenticeship place for every school leaver who gets the grades, use government procurement to create thousands of new apprenticeship opportunities and safeguard apprenticeship quality", Chuka Umunna, Labour's shadow business secretary, said in the email. Cameron will be speaking on the day that gross domestic product figures for the first quarter are due to be released. Britain's economy slowed in the first three months of this year, data is likely to show on Tuesday, potentially dealing a setback to Cameron, who has staked his re-election bid on the strength of the recovery. (Reporting by Supriya Kurane in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)