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Youth Unemployment and Bank Bonuses

I thank my hon. Friend for making such an eloquent point. As my near neighbour, he is really throwing the gauntlet down, but I am confident that Rossendale and Darwen will more than beat 107 apprenticeships in 100 days. I want to talk about some of the businesses that I have been to see that are going to support us and that, even before we started, pledged to give a young person a chance by taking on a new apprentice. Businesses from every section of the economy are involved, not just those in the biblical trades or manufacturing. They include Home Manor residential nursing home, Whitehead's traditional butchers, DHJ Weisters Ltd, Aquasoft Solutions, which is a computer company, McCambridge Group, Crown Paints, WEC Group, which is an engineering company, Turnbull Prints and Anglo Recycling. We have across the entire constituency a commitment from business to give young people a chance. When I talk with those businesses, they tell me that the Government's signal that they want to rebalance the economy and will support apprenticeships has helped them to decide to take on apprentices. One thing in particular has changed their mind: the pledge to give a £1,500 incentive to smaller firms to take on a young person. We can get involved in the debate about what is right and wrong about the apprentice scheme and what else we should be doing, but I appeal to all hon. Members to go out there, speak to businesses in their constituencies, advocate why they should support young people, why they should invest in their work force, why young people would be good for their business, bringing fresh ideas and new skills, and ask them whether they will take a young person on and give them a chance. If just throwing money at the problem solved youth unemployment, the previous Government would have done so, because they threw lots at it. The only way we can solve part of the youth unemployment problem is through training and leadership, and leadership should come from hon. Members, from employers and from the Government. There is nothing more important than getting our young people back to work.