Unemployment increases in Jarrow constituency the grim reality behind Tory propaganda – Stephen Hepburn MP

Clueless Conservatives need to cut the guff when official figures show the number of workless claimants searching for employment’s climbed to 2,340 in the Jarrow constituency.

Behind the statistics from the House of Commons library are real people struggling to pay bills in the parts of South Tyneside and Gateshead I fight for every day.

Grafters who want to graft but the jobs aren’t there for them so Theresa May should stop with the rose tinted view and start telling it like it is.

Unemployment remains painfully high in the North East, joblessness standing at over 70,000 and the region’s unemployment rate at 5.7% is the worst in the UK – higher even than Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The increase in the Jarrow constituency isn’t the only worry when many more on Tyneside are in low paid, part-time, insecure and zero-hour contract jobs.

Bills are regular, coming in every week and month, so a few hours here and there isn’t the answer.

Factor in wicked Tory cuts to wage packet in-work benefits, on top of scandals such as the bedroom tax and benefits cap, and it’s no wonder that these days most households classed as poor have somebody who goes out to work.

The Government’s handling of the Universal Credit nightmare is the callousness of a Tory Party which doesn’t care when families are told to live on less money.

Each and every worker deserves a decent day’s pay for a decent day’s work and we must replace the Tories with a Labour Government to stop the Conservatives chucking decent people on the scrapheap.

We might relish watching Victoria on ITV1 Sunday nights but the Tories dragging us back to the Victorian era isn’t enjoyable.

Millions of families nationwide struggling on breadline incomes, destitution and homelessness growing alongside diseases such as rickets we hoped were consigned to the dustbin of history, is a Tory crime against decency.

Labour will introduce a real living wage of at least £10 an hour to make work pay and end the exploitation of zero hours contracts.

It’s why Labour wants a General Election to end the Tories’ dead-end austerity squeezing families and public services.

And why the Conservatives are running scared, desperate to cling to power to benefit the Tory Party at the cost of the nation.

I and my Labour colleagues will continue to fight for prosperity for all and social justice.

Tory failures don’t come much more expensive than the longest wages squeeze since Wellington beat Napoleon at Waterloo leaving a typical pay packet worth upwards of a tenner less a week in spending power than it was 10 years ago.

Now is time for investment, an end to austerity, a real living wage and the mother of all shake ups for Universal Credit.

And we must provide jobs and opportunities for all the talented people in our area.