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Unemployment in the UK

I marvel that the Conservative party can even stage a debate on unemployment, and I marvel that the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) felt it possible to talk about the need to protect jobs. The Conservative party, when it was last in office, destroyed indigenous manufacturing industry in Britain: it destroyed the steel industry; it destroyed the motor car industry; it destroyed the shipbuilding industry; and it destroyed the extractive industries. The Conservatives left a wasteland that the present Government had to clear up and then build on. In my constituency, we had—I went to see Margaret Thatcher about it when it was in danger, to no avail—an electronics factory that manufactured multi-layer boards. That went under, and it is now a blood transfusion centre. That is one of the legacies of the Conservative party in the Gorton constituency of Manchester. It created a wasteland in which the Gorton constituency was No. 1 in Great Britain for long-term unemployment and No. 1 in England for youth unemployment. We are still above the national average, but the situation in my constituency has been transformed since the Labour Government came to office. How has the situation been transformed? One of the first things that the Government did when they came to office was to sign up to the social chapter, which the Conservative party said would be ruinous to the country. When we introduced the new deal, the Tory party voted against it in the House. We financed the start of the new deal by the windfall tax, and both the Tory party and the Liberal Democrats voted against the windfall tax when my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister introduced it. The hon. Member for Cardiff, Central (Jenny Willott) has said that it would be dangerous to increase the national minimum wage at this point. In fact, the national minimum wage is being increased at this point. When our Government, when they first came to office, decided to introduce the national minimum wage, the Conservative party, with its spokesman, the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard), said that introducing a minimum wage would increase unemployment. In fact, the national minimum wage, rising regularly and periodically as a result of the Government's decisions, has not only reduced unemployment, but given workers a self-respect that they did not have before. I had a constituent who, during the period of Conservative Government, came to tell me that his employer—he was a security guard—had increased his working hours from 64 hours to 72 hours alternating, reduced his hourly wage and, what is more, would not pay him overtime. I wrote to the Secretary of State for Employment in the Conservative Government asking her what my constituent could do in those fraught circumstances. She very kindly wrote back to me and said that it was open to him to resign his job. He would, of course, have lost any redundancy benefits, if he had done so. That would not be possible now. Under the social chapter, that man could not be forced to work those hours, and his pay would be protected against the most rapacious employer under the national minimum wage. The present Government have not simply reduced unemployment and increased employment availability to the highest level that this country has ever known, but made it impossible for workers to be treated like serfs, as they were under the Conservative Government. The projects continue. Even over the past month, two new projects have opened in my constituency, both as a result of Government policies. We have the new east Manchester construction centre, in which people, which includes not only young people but men and women, are being trained in construction skills such as kitchen and bathroom fitting, plastering, carpentry and joining, and general construction operations. The centre is funded largely by the Government through the Northwest Development Agency, the new deal for communities and the learning and skills council. The head of Manchester college, which is involved in the project, made a speech at the opening, which I attended, in which he said that before 1997 the only money that his college was given for job creation projects was £1 million to demolish a building. Now it has been given £50 million for employment projects. Those employment projects are not simply reducing unemployment in the Gorton constituency, but giving people skills, so that they can get better jobs and not be ground down and obliged to take the only job available. A couple of weeks ago, I attended a graduation ceremony in Gorton monastery, about which I spoke the other day, of people about to be employed in the huge new Tesco that is to open in Gorton later this month. They had an eight-week training period—130 people deliberately and specifically chosen by Tesco in co-operation with Jobcentre Plus, the learning and skills council and Sure Start. I do not know how the Tory party has the nerve to talk about child poverty when it opposed and jeered at Sure Start, which is one of the greatest of a series of projects in my constituency. The Tesco project is exactly what we want in this country today—private enterprise joining with Government and public agencies, including the excellent Manchester city council, in order to provide people with jobs. When I attended an address at the graduation ceremony for Tesco, I was moved by the way in which people reacted to the opportunities that they have been given. A middle-aged woman said that she had her self-respect back again. That kind of thing is happening only because we have a Labour Government who are carrying out policies based on not some kind of blanket funding, but a one-to-one project. That is the merit of Jobcentre Plus, the new deal and the kind of projects that I have been talking about. Those are not the only projects that are proceeding. The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for Delyn (Mr. Hanson) came to Gorton a few months ago to deal with bringing offenders back into paid employment, which is again a Government project joining with private agencies. That is the kind of thing that the Government are doing. I am proud of this Labour Government. I am well aware that a great deal more needs to be done. In my constituency, we are part of east Manchester regeneration, which would not be possible without the Labour Government and Manchester city council. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister came to my constituency a couple of weeks ago and opened a £47 million high school that is better than anything in Europe. That was only possible because of Labour Government policies, and, of course, it provided a huge amount of employment for local workers. The Government have a record that will stand up against anything that I have experienced in my years in the House of Commons. Yes, there is a lot more to be done, and yes, of course, there is huge concern about how the current global crisis will affect employment. I was interested to listen to the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell offering a solution to the global crisis—it was a bit different from the solution offered by the shadow Chancellor yesterday, but no doubt when the Leader of the Opposition speaks tomorrow he will offer yet a third solution to the global crisis. What we have in this country today is far from perfection, but it is very, very much better than anything that my constituents have experienced since I was a Minister and did such good things for them. I do not criticise the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell—he has a job to do and he did it quite nicely—but it is just that it was totally incredible.