Labour challenges Tories to adopt jobs plan to help Brits to return to work

04 March 2023 , 22:30

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Jonathan Ashworth says Labour is "the party of ideas for the future" (Image: Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)

Jeremy Hunt has been challenged to adopt Labour’s jobs plan amid soaring unemployment figures.

As many as 1 million young people are out of the workforce, with many more over-50s and people recovering from ill health wanting to return to work.

But Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said under the Tories too many people are stuck on a journey from “welfare to nowhere” – where those out of work are trapped on benefits with no meaningful help to get them help and support.

And he said some people trying to get off sickness benefits have been told to wait more than six months for a ‘Work Capability Assessment’.

In a letter to Mr Hunt and Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, Mr Ashworth urged the Government to reform sickness benefits and Work Capability assessments and hand powers to local communities to deliver employment support and training.

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And he called for a “bridge back” system to be introduced for people on long-term sick leave to try returning to work, but be allowed to return to benefits if it doesn’t work out.

Ashworth challenged Jeremy Hunt to prove he's serious about the future of Britain (Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street)

He wrote: “Without action, you risk leaving millions of people across the country on a path to nowhere. You are reducing their opportunities and life chances and holding them back.

“I urge you to work with me to implement my plan for back to work support in order to spread opportunity and success across the country.”

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mirror, Mr Ashworth said offering the plan to ministers showed Labour was “the party of ideas for the future.”

“I can see the failure,” he said. “I can see things going wrong.”

Recalling a brief period in the 1980s when his father was unemployed, he said he remembered the “haunted faces” of people queueing up in the dole office in Manchester.

“Unemployment and wordlessness is devastating,” he said. “There’s a fierce urgency in getting people into work and supporting people.

“Obviously I want a Labour government to deliver that, but there’s a big challenge to Jeremy Hunt in this next week. Are you serious about the future of this country?

“That’s the test of this budget - are you serious about getting people back to work, into good, well paying jobs? That’s why I’m saying I’ve got a plan.”

Mikey Smith