Blair McDougall

I will make some progress. We agree that young people should be supported into work. However, we disagree fundamentally on how to go about that. The hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith) spoke about the minimum wage, but told the House that she did not want to talk about what might happen in the future. I think I know why that is. It is because in a report from the Prosperity Institute, the shadow Business Minister in the other place committed to freezing the minimum wage for five years. That is a real-terms cut of 12% for the poorest workers that will not just take £8,900 out of the pockets of the poorest workers in the country, but take that money out of the tills of businesses in their communities. The way to fix the issue we have with youth unemployment is to increase the number of apprenticeships, increase the flexibility of those apprenticeships, invest in the growth sectors that will create the well-paid jobs of the future, ensure that those young unemployed people are more attractive to potential employers and take all the other measures that we are taking to invest in business. The Tory plan for those young people who have been rejected over and over again and who are close to being broken by the experience of being let down by the system is to punish them for that. We will not do that. The Conservatives offer only insecure hours, cuts to incomes and poverty pay. That did not work for 14 years, it did not work for employers and it will not work now. Question put.