Dame Caroline Dinenage, Member of Parliament for Gosport, has warned that unemployment is rising in her constituency after new figures were published showing 135 more adults were claiming unemployment related benefits than this time last year.
Caroline’s comments come on the same day that independent figures show national unemployment has reached the highest level since the coronavirus pandemic. This is the ninth month in a row that unemployment has increased. Major UK employer, Jaguar Land Rover, today announced 500 job losses whilst the number of payrolled employees in the country has decreased by 41,000 in the last month alone.
Due to a cocktail of tax rises on businesses and working people, U-turns on welfare reform, and 1970s style business regulation, UK business confidence has sunk to a 3-year low. Meanwhile, inflation has risen again to 3.6% - almost double the level which the Conservatives brought it down to after the pandemic and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Recent figures show that the economy had contracted by 0.1% in May.
Responding to the figures, Caroline said:
‘It’s incredibly sad and worrying to read that businesses are shedding workers in Gosport and across the UK, but it isn’t a surprise. The Conservatives warned at the General Election that Labour would break their tax promises and that ordinary working people would suffer, and that’s been reflected in the fact that fewer people are being given the opportunity to get a job and get on in life.
‘This contraction in business confidence and rise in unemployment is a direct result of Labour’s disastrous Jobs Tax that has seen 9 consecutive months of shrinking opportunity.’
