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Opportunities for the Next Generation

I am proud of the effectiveness of my Government's policies in tackling long-term youth unemployment. The experience of having nothing to do has a lasting effect on people's careers, incomes and aspirations up to 20 years after the event, and we succeeded in tackling that throughout our period in office from 1997. The reality is that that this Government have scrapped the future jobs fund and, far from introducing anything better, have put nothing effective in its place. The effects of that on young people are all too clear.