Reading Labour Party Chair Sarah King has attacked the “cruel hypocrisy” of the welfare reform launched by David Cameron and Iain Duncan-Smith last week.
“It is fine to talk of making work pay,” she says, “but for that to make sense you have got to provide the work. There are 4658 people unemployed across the two Reading constituencies not because they are better off on benefits – they are not – but because there are not the jobs for them to do.
Ms King points out that jobs are going in the public sector – Reading Council and the Royal Berks. are losing well over 1,000 jobs between them – and they are not being created in the private sector; retail sales are down; construction is in the doldrums, manufacturing is struggling to find markets in a world of cut-backs; and even the CBI says the Conservative Government has no strategy for growth.
“However,” she adds, “instead of trying to grow the economy and provide jobs Mr Cameron is taking refuge in blaming the unemployed for failing to find jobs that don’t exist. And threatening to swell the dole queues by making more young mums search for jobs that don’t exist too. People on benefits are an easy target, but there is a cruel streak running through this Government which they mustn’t be allowed to mask with spin.”
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