We face an unemployment emergency

Today’s unemployment figures should set alarm bells ringing in Downing Street. The highest number of women unemployed since 1987. The highest youth unemployment ever, with one in five out of work. Unemployment now the highest overall for a generation. Official figures state there are 2.68 million out of work. In Japan and the US, unemployment is stable or falling. Yet in the UK we are facing an unemployment emergency. That’s why Ed Miliband put pressure on the PM at PMQs this lunch-time on the terrible jobless figures. He said it was ‘back to the 1980s’.

This morning I’ve heard the ‘minister for unemployment’ Chris Grayling offering a staggeringly complacent series of excuses and platitudes.

At PMQs today, David Cameron said there was ‘not an ounce of complacency in this government’ but that’s not what it looks like. Mr Grayling sought to dance around the statistics, blame full-time students seeking part-time work, and say mounting unemployment is all the fault of the crisis in the Euro zone. But every family in Britain knows a young person out of work, or someone laid off. On every high street, we know that businesses are struggling and shops are closing down, being replaced by charity shops or being left empty. That’s what makes me so furious: as families and business bear the brunt, and ministers are complacent.

Labour will continue to fight for our five-point plan for jobs and growth. Like progressive parties the world over, from the USA to France, Labour is demanding short term measures to tackle unemployment. We want a fair bankers’ bonus tax to pay for 100,000 jobs for young people and built 25,000 new homes; bring forward big building and road-building projects; a temporary reverse to the VAT rise; a one-year cut in VAT to 5% on home improvements; and a one-year national insurance tax break for small firms that create jobs for young people. This is the agenda that Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have been arguing for in recent weeks. It’s a package which would make a start to tackle the unemployment emergency right now.

The government stands aside while thousands of people lose their jobs. That is the defining characteristic of this Conservative-led government, as it has been each previous Tory government. Ministers seem out of touch with the realities that our communities are facing. The government must change course.

The real tragedy is that behind the statistics are real families, real lives. Real young people whose futures are being sacrificed. Real communities with their hearts ripped out. Today’s figures are bad, but the truth is that without a change of course, unemployment is set to get worse. The alarm bells are ringing, but the prime minister cannot hear their warning.

Liam Byrne MP is the shadow work and pensions minister