BRITAIN will slide into decline unless the coalition tackles youth unemployment, a North East MP has warned.
Wansbeck’s Ian Lavery also claimed the coalition had “hammered” the region because of its support for Labour rather than the Tories or Liberal Democrats.
Speaking in the Commons, he said youth unemployment was one of the most important issues in Britain – and warned the North East in particular was suffering.
He said: “In my constituency, 20.7% of young people are not in education, employment or training. It was once a thriving mining community, but we now have unemployment levels of 7.7%.
“Over the past five years, there has been a 67% increase in the number of jobseeker’s allowance applications, and over the past 12 months, a 19.8% increase.
“The number of applications from those aged 24 and under has increased by 34% in 12 months. It is an absolute disgrace.”
He said the “most horrendous” statistic was that for every job vacancy in Wansbeck, there were 9.6 applicants. He said: “The lack of jobs and opportunities will see this country decline in the future.
“Young people should be seen as our future doctors, business men and women, nurses, firefighters, teachers, soldiers, sailors and council workers. We should treat them with a little decorum.”
The Wansbeck MP asked: “How are we in this together? It is not right. Why is the North East continually hammered by this coalition Government?”
The coalition should look at Labour’s growth plans and what others were saying about the economy, said the Labour MP. Skills Minister John Hayes said nobody could not be moved by what Mr Lavery and other MPs had said about the plight of young people in their constituencies.
“Let there be no dispute about this, there is no denial and there is no complacency,” said the Tory minister, who revealed that his father and grandfather were out of work in the 1930s.
“The story now, as we have heard from Members across the House [of Commons], is no less tragic than it was then. That is why the Government are doing something about it.”
He said the number of young people not in work, training or education had been “unacceptable” in the good years, and while Labour’s programmes in Government were not cost effective, the coalition was acting.
He said: “This Government are acting on apprenticeships. We are acting on the Work programme. We are acting on work experience. We are working on getting people into jobs.
“That is the difference between this Government and the previous Government. We care too, but we act as well.”
