During Work and Pension Questions in Parliament today (04/09/2023) Kate Osborne MP called on Government to stop neglecting and start investing in northern communities, asking the Minister:
“87 Years since the Jarrow March against unemployment and my constituents are still being let down, we have a higher percentage of people claiming unemployment benefits than the national average and the reality is worse when you factor in the hidden unemployed.
“According to the Centre for Cities, 9 out of 10 places with the highest hidden unemployment rates are in the North.
“Instead of continuing with false rhetoric on levelling up, when will this Government stop neglecting and start investing in our northern communities?”
Osborne criticised the Ministers response stating:
“The Minister’s response to my question today failed to even mention regional inequalities in employment.
Instead he assumed I was going to ask about Women and spoke about supporting women into employment.
This Government has no answers to the problems facing our northern communities, problems that their policies are making worse on a daily basis.
“The Tories do not live in the real world, they are in complete denial about the realities facing people in my Jarrow constituency”
ENDS
Notes:
Link to video of Kate’s Question on social media: https://twitter.com/KateOsborneMP/status/1698707257788113215?s=20