Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said in response to the Independent’s story on the Youth Contract:

“It’s now clear to everyone that the Youth Contract has utterly failed to get our young people back to work. This flagship scheme, supposedly the government’s answer to the scandal of mass youth unemployment, has been a total flop.

“With still almost a million young people out of a job, we need urgent action that is up to the scale of the task. Alan Milburn is right to call on the government to work with employers to offer young people a guarantee of a job if they are in danger of becoming long-term unemployed. That’s why we have been calling on them to adopt Labour’s Compulsory Jobs Guarantee, funded by a repeat of the bank bonus tax, to get any under-25 out of work for one year into a real paying job – one they would be required to take or risk losing their benefits.”