Youth Unemployment

Sean Woodcock Excerpts

Wednesday 28th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sean Woodcock (Banbury) (Lab)]

It is a real pleasure to speak in this important debate on a vital topic. There have been numerous fascinating contributions from Members across the House, which is why I was so astonished by the contribution from the Opposition Front Bencher, the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately)—she was patronising young people when she should have been apologising to them. Hundreds of thousands of young people fell out of employment, education and training on the Conservatives’ watch.

In Banbury, youth unemployment is lower than the national average. I do not think that will surprise anybody; given its Soho Farmhouse, celebrity farmers and the Chipping Norton set, it may be assumed that youth unemployment is not something we know. That would be wrong, though, because there are deep pockets of deprivation in places such as Grimsbury and Ruscote—both of which I served as a councillor for—but also in Chipping Norton itself. There are too many young people there who have been failed for far too long, and the result is that they do not do things. They do not learn to drive, they find it difficult to get a job, and they end up having shorter lives than people just down the road from them. In rural areas, too, things such as the decimation of buses that we saw under austerity have led to some kids being unable to go to college or get into town to go to a job, so the cycle continues.

The difficulties affecting our young people should anger us all and upset our British sense of fairness, because our young people have so much to offer. During the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, young people were asked to make sacrifices that were not made by any previous generation. Freshers’ weeks at universities and colleges were done via Zoom, kickabouts with your mates down the park were not allowed, and nights on the town were banned. What did young people get in return? They were told by the Conservative party at the last general election, “Go and do national service.” This is a party that did not help young people to get into work or to stay in it, with youth unemployment growing by almost 50% between 2021 and 2024. Under the Conservatives, the UK was the only G7 country whose employment rate was lower after the pandemic than before it—if they want to talk about records, that is their record.

The Conservatives want to come to this Chamber and talk about what this Government are doing. They are the ones who closed youth centres; this Government are opening youth hubs. We are rolling out programmes to get people into work, in contrast to the Conservatives’ plan to cut support. This Government are overhauling jobcentres so that they support both people who are looking for work and businesses that are looking to recruit, and we are also getting buses back on the road. This Labour Government are providing a jobs guarantee; the Opposition are guaranteeing absolutely nothing, because they have learned absolutely nothing from the 14 years that they were in government.