We’re in a jobs crisis, PM.. open your eyes

Brown’s alert on Covid-hit young

GORDON Brown today urges the Government to wake up to the extent of Covid-19’s economic fallout and create 1.5 million jobs.

The former Prime Minister has called on Boris Johnson to hold a youth job summit amid warnings up to a million young people could be unemployed within weeks in a work crisis worse than that of the 1980s.

A report for the Labour grandee’s Alliance For Full Employment suggests 1.5 million young people will need help over the coming year.

And author Professor Paul Gregg said the Government’s Kickstart scheme, aiming to deliver 150,000 jobs, is not enough. The AFFE wants ministers to set out a plan agreed with the devolved governments and England’s city region mayors.

Mr Brown said: “Today we are dealing with a far bigger challenge than in the 1980s and it needs a Uk-wide jobs summit bringing together the regions and nations with the Prime Minister.

“If we do not listen to what is happening on the ground and mobilise all the resources of the UK, we will fail a gen eration of y oung people as surely as we did for too long in the 1980s.

“The Prime Minister should recognise that, when all his initiatives are taken together, they simply do not meet his promise of ‘an opportunity generation’ with help available to all.”

Mr Brown has also backed the Mirror’s Keep Britain Working campaign.

Around 60% of redundancies since March have hit under-25s and the unemployment rate for young men is three times the adult rate.

And youth unemployment will hit a million next month as more leave education.

We face a far bigger challenge than in the 1980s

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