Reform UK's Suella Braverman has called for radical action to fix Britain's broken benefits system, warning that an entire generation is being squandered as youth unemployment reaches record levels.
Writing for the Express, Braverman said that for years the number of young people not in education, employment or training has rocketed, with politicians brushing the crisis under the carpet and condemning millions of young Brits to unemployment and welfare.
Record NEET figures
More than one million 16- to 24-year-olds are now NEET - the highest figure for over a decade. Adding the long-term sick, the total hits 2.7 million. Braverman also noted that there are now 27 young foreign workers for every young working Brit.
She criticised Andy Burnham, saying he is a master of the approach that got the country into this mess, kicking the can down the road on issue after issue and being a Prime Minister of rhetoric over results.
Milburn Review criticised
While welcoming the Milburn Review, Braverman said the suggestion that it will take 10 years to get young people back into work and bring down the youth benefits bill is not good enough. She argued that youngsters need help today, not in 2036.
She described as unacceptable the suggestion that a 21-year-old graduate, £50,000 in debt and stuck living at home with almost no job prospects, should be told to wait until their thirties.
Reform UK proposals
Braverman said Reform would remove benefits for young people choosing not to work and reverse Rachel Reeves's jobs tax to encourage them back into work.
As Education Secretary, she said she would double apprenticeships with the Apprenticeship Wage Credit, end the Great University Scam and cut worthless degrees that leave graduates with virtually no employment prospects. She also pledged to scrap the arbitrary cap on medical places to train more British doctors and nurses rather than importing them from abroad, and put British workers at the front of the queue for jobs.
Braverman concluded that Reform will not stand idly by as another generation of young people is lost.
