Yvette Cooper: Unemployment figures are “very worrying”

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Speaking to BBC News this morning, shadow work and pensions minister Yvette Cooper called the latest unemployment figures “very worrying”. Cooper said:

“The most recent figures show an increase in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits and a very big drop of vacancies in the economy. Those are quite grim figures, we should be quite worried about that.”

“These figures are in advance of any of the cuts and in advance of the emergency budget.”

“The overall cuts in the economy could end up pushing us back into recession or preventing the economy from growing as it should.”

Yvette has been a strong and consistent voice on the economy since (and before) the election. While there are obviously voices calling for Ed Balls to be given the shadow chancellor job if he doesn’t win the leadership, there’s a very strong case that it should be his wife instead.