Youth Unemployment

Debate between Pat McFadden and Rushanara Ali

Tuesday 17th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

The hon. Gentleman opposes the changes that we made to national insurance, but he neglects to mention that employer national insurance contributions are not required for employees under the age of 21, unless they are earning more than £50,000 a year. He opposes those changes while supporting extra expenditure on the NHS. As I have said to him a few times, if his party supports extra expenditure, it really has to support revenue-raising measures to fund it.

Young people will have heard the hon. Gentleman dismiss the changes that I have set out today; in fact, they will have heard him say that if he was asked to choose between management courses and young people, he would choose management courses—that is now the established position of the Liberal Democrats. I think that many people would be surprised to hear that in some years, most apprenticeship expenditure has gone on those over the age of 25 who are already in work. We have made a choice; we have chosen young people, and for good reasons. We have chosen them because of the scarring effects of youth unemployment, which I mentioned in my statement, and we now have on record that both the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats are opposed to our prioritisation of young people.

[Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Stepney) (Lab)]

I welcome this excellent initiative, with the backing of £2.5 billion of investment, and I commend the Secretary of State on trying to get a grip on the scourge of youth unemployment. We saw a generation lost during the previous Government because of the failure to support young people. What will the Secretary of State do to support disabled young people? The backlog and delays in the Access to Work programme are a real issue. Will he say more about what charities and social enterprises can do, and how they will be supported, in addition to the public sector, to get more young people who are NEET into work?

[Pat McFadden]

My hon. Friend asks about disabled young people. It is really important that we get more help and support to disabled people who, in the past, were too often signed off, written off and forgotten about. That is not good enough for them or for the country as a whole. The Connect to Work programme, which is devolved to elected mayors and local authorities, is helping disabled people, and the WorkWell programme seeks to get over the divide between health advice and employment advice. She is right that there are issues with the Access to Work programme. It is a really good programme, but there is a backlog that I want to see reduced because it is an important programme that helps disabled people to get into work and stay in work.

Delivery of Public Services

Debate between Pat McFadden and Rushanara Ali

Tuesday 28th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr McFadden]

To govern is to take responsibility, and the problem with saying that it is all about the post-pandemic situation is that waiting lists had almost doubled before the pandemic. I could give the hon. Member the figures again, but I do not want to read them out twice.

It is not just about the NHS. There are also delays at our ports. We have seen long queues of lorries—the delays are well known—and increased costs and bureaucracy for exporters.

[Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that, when the last Labour Government left office in 2010, satisfaction in the national health service was among the highest in the world and that through reform programmes, disruption and cuts in funding the Government have created problems in the NHS? They need to get a grip.

We also have chaos in the courts. I see that in my constituency, where the family courts are really struggling with long waiting lists because of shortages of judges and lawyers. We also have passport queues and disruption across the country. The Government have lost control and need to get a grip.

[Mr McFadden]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I remember seeing the driving down of waiting times and waiting lists in government, and never at any point did anyone say, “We can take our foot off the gas” because there might have been problems in Germany or somewhere else. We took responsibility for the system that we were running.

As I said, there have been large queues at the ports. The Government do not need to rerun the Brexit argument—Ministers should have realised that we can leave only once—but there are things that they could do. They could at least seek a veterinary agreement with the EU—even New Zealand has one—which would be a better deal for our farmers and our food industry and may cut the bureaucracy and delays at our ports.

Let us take the asylum system, which is of significant concern to our constituents. The number of cases taking more than six months to decide has been up every quarter since the Home Secretary took office, and the backlog has tripled in the last three years. That matters because delays cost money and leave everyone in limbo.