Labour's flagship New Deal programme for helping the unemployed should now be scrapped, the Liberal Democrats have said.

Work spokesman Paul Holmes branded the scheme a "shambolic failure" costing taxpayers £791 million a year.

Publishing a report on the government's key employment scheme, he said there were low rates of success and a "revolving door" as young people repeatedly go through New Deal programmes.

There was also criticism that many of those who enter the programme would have found employment anyway.

Under plans set out at the party's Bournemouth conference, the New Deal would be replaced by "individual work schemes".

These would establish "more flexible and intensive" programmes, with a focus on disadvantaged groups such as lone parents and ethnic minorities.

"As a nation we cannot afford to continue to ignore the plight of those who face the greatest difficulty in gaining work, including the 1.2 million disabled people who want to work," Holmes said.

"It is unjust to them and with an ageing population profile, it is an appalling waste of the nation's human capital."