"This time last year, the Chancellor told me not to worry about youth unemployment on the grounds that his Youth Contract would take care of it. Now we know that 450,000 young people have been unemployed for more than six months and that 179,000 have gone on to the Work …..." David Miliband - View Speech
"I want to make two points in this debate. The first is about youth unemployment. I will present some figures showing the rising cost of the Government’s economic failure. The second is that the neglect in respect of youth unemployment is mirrored by a misguided response to the storms in …..." David Miliband - View Speech
"I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who makes a perfectly intelligent point. It seems to me to be a good thing to raise university participation levels up to international standards, which is between 45% and 50%, but it is crucial for those who do not go to university that …..." David Miliband - View Speech
"The leading countries of the world for higher education are, first, the United States, which has a 55% participation rate, and, secondly, France, which most people would recognise as having an outstanding higher education system. It has 48% participation. Korea, one of the new countries growing up in the …..." David Miliband - View Speech
"The figures that the right hon. Gentleman’s Department have put out show that in the past year—under his Government—long-term jobseeker’s allowance claimant figures have gone up threefold to 55,000. How does he explain that?..." David Miliband - View Speech
"I was actually wondering how many more pages of this drivel we had to sit through. The hon. Gentleman said that infrastructure is the seedcorn and the basis of future prosperity. How, then, does he explain the fact that 45% of the infrastructure investment that the Chancellor announced in the …..." David Miliband - View Speech
"The Minister did not manage to mention in his speech the export potential of football, but I am happy to refer the House to my declared interest as the vice-chairman of Sunderland football club.
Since last Wednesday, the consensus has formed that the Budget spin was cack-handed. I want to …..." David Miliband - View Speech
"The right hon. Gentleman quoted the figure of 40% for the rise in youth unemployment under the previous Government. It is correct that youth unemployment started rising in 2004, but the allegation against the current Government is that they have made the situation much worse. In my constituency of South …..." David Miliband - View Speech
"The Chancellor has recognised that 260,000 young people have been unemployed for more than 12 months—that is over 100,000 more than 18 months ago. He has rejected the argument for a job guarantee and instead embraced wage subsidies, which he says will help about 53,000 young people. For the sake …..." David Miliband - View Speech