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Unemployment in the UK

My hon. Friend makes an important point, and he speaks out clearly in defence of the interests of the people of west Yorkshire. We should be concerned about employment in both Bradford and Halifax, given what has happened in the past few weeks. After 10 years in power, Ministers need to spend a bit more time in the real world, because as always with this Government, when one reads the small print, one sees that there is a much more sober tale to tell. Ministers tell us that they have created 3 million more jobs, but they do not tell us that about 80 per cent. of them have gone to migrant workers. If one uses the International Labour Organisation measure of unemployment, which, in opposition, the Prime Minister used to prefer, one is told that the jobless total has fallen by only 300,000 over 10 years of continuous economic growth. Almost 5 million people in Britain are claiming out-of-work benefits. The rate of economic inactivity—one in five—is pretty much unchanged from 1997. Some 5 million people in Britain do not have any formal qualification, and the employment rate for those lower-skilled workers has fallen under Labour. Britain's employment growth last year was among the lowest in Europe; it was higher only than in Hungary and Portugal.