Youth jobless toll ‘lies’

Date published: 02/10/2007

The Conservatives turned up the heat on Gordon Brown branding him a liar about the scale of youth unemployment.

The ferocious attack at the Blackpool conference follows rising Conservative alarm that opinion polls show Mr Brown is far more trusted than Tory leader David Cameron.

Yet, the Conservatives argued, the former Chancellor was to blame for youth unemployment higher than 10 years ago.

The party has highlighted the number of 16 to 18-year-olds not in education, employment and training — or NEETs.

Chris Grayling, the Conservative work and pensions spokesman, told the conference that, in July, the Government claimed it had solved the problem of jobless youths.

He said: "There is only one way of describing that claim — it was a lie. Billions have been spent. And the result? There are now more 16 to 24-year-olds unemployed in Britain than there were 10 years ago."

But Milnrow amp; Newhey MP Phil Woolas said: "The Tories have gone ga ga in their desperation to win power. When I was elected MP in 1997 there were more than four times as many young people unemployed."