Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Love Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I remember visiting with him Hainsworth & Sons, a textile company in his constituency, which is now exporting to China. In his constituency, as in others, we have seen a dramatic fall in unemployment. Unemployment is down 31% in the last year; youth unemployment has fallen too. Many of those jobs are in full-time employment, as he says, but of course we are also supporting those in self-employment.

[Mr Andrew Love (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)]

Of all those jobs created, many are part time, and part-time jobs for people who are looking for full-time employment—over a quarter of a million people are involved there. What is the Chancellor doing to increase the opportunities for full-time employment in this country?

[Mr Osborne]

What the hon. Gentleman says is not a clear statement of the facts, because actually, full-time employment accounts for three quarters of all the new jobs created since 2010. Of course there are those who want part-time employment, but for those in part-time employment who want full-time employment, the answer is to continue to support the economy, to do the difficult things necessary on the public finances to inspire confidence in that economy, and not to have disastrous things like a jobs tax rise, which would make it more difficult for those people to get full-time work.