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Work Programme (Wales)

The hon. Gentleman is speaking as though unemployment is a price worth paying. I have been reminded by my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham that I am going on a bit, so I will curtail my speech. My final point, which is one that has not been answered by any of the Front-Bench team here or back in Parliament, relates to their theory of the private sector taking up the slack from the public sector. Some 46% of workers in my constituency—13,000 people—are in the public sector. Up to 27% of them, depending on which area of the public sector they work in, will be sacked. The Welsh cuts have not yet started; they start next April. We have had the police cut by 369 people in north Wales. Of those 13,000 workers, 3,000 will be put on the dole. Where are the jobs coming from for those 3,000 people? The Conservatives may point to Labour’s record. In 1997, there were 23,000 people working in my constituency; by 2008, there were 30,000. That is a record that I am proud of and a record that the Government are undoing.