Gordon Banks

With hundreds of local young people leaving education this month, GORDON BANKS MP FOR OCHIL & SOUTH PERTHSHIRE has urged the Tory – Lib Dem government not to cut support for youth jobs.

Figures released last month show that youth unemployment (aged 18-24) in the Ochil & Kinross-shire area is now standing at 645 – almost 2% higher than the national average.

Labour’s Future Jobs Fund has created over 15,000 youth jobs in Scotland. But the government is scrapping this help and abolishing Labour’s Youth Guarantee of a job or training place for any young person who has been out of work for six months. 

Gordon Banks MP for Ochil & South Perthshire said:

“Local young people should not pay the price for this government’s unfair cuts.

“Scrapping support for youth jobs is wasting the talents of an entire generation.  That’s why I believe there should be more opportunities for young people around here to find work.”

“These figures show just why it is dangerous and callous to cut support for jobs and the economy.

“May's small fall in unemployment is welcome and reflects the extra support Labour put into the economy as it started to come out of recession.

“But there's still little sign of private sector job growth, with jobs in areas like construction still being heavily hit. And this is before the big spending cuts and the surge in young people leaving education this summer.

“Cutting 90,000 youth jobs and hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs while the private sector is still so fragile will condemn many people to a lifetime on the dole.

“In the 90s the Tories said unemployment was a price worth paying to cut inflation - now they clearly think it's a price worth paying to bring down the deficit.”