Owen Smith MP, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on the publication of the ONS quarterly jobs and earnings statistics, said:

“This growth in unemployment is worrying, as over 20,000 more people are now looking for work. This comes on top of sluggish earnings growth, as working people make their way through a Tory decade of record low pay.

“At this time the very last thing the Tories should be doing is cutting in-work support to low and middle paid workers.  Yet that is exactly what Stephen Crabb did last week by introducing Universal Credit cuts that will leave 2 million working families an average of £1,600 a year worse off.”