Sunderland MP warns UK could be set for worst unemployment since 1980s

Writing in the Sunderland Echo, Houghton and Sunderland South MP Bridget Phillipson condemned Chancellor Rish Sunak’s Conservative Party conference speech and said: “Our country is faces unemployment on a scale not seen since the 1980s.

"We have already lost one million jobs since the start of the pandemic - and the figures ahead are bleak.”

Ms Phillipson says more than 11,000 people in Sunderland are still on furlough more than six months after the scheme started at the beginning of the nationwide lockdown in March, with no clear idea of when they will be able to return to work while local rules continue.

“Rishi Sunak’s conference speech was an opportunity to deliver an important message to the hundreds of thousands in our country whose jobs are on the line because of the pandemic,” she writes.

“In the end, he spoke for just 10 minutes.

“He didn't announce anything new for the millions of self-employed, who now face the harshest of winters with reduced support.

“Nor did he have anything to say to those who haven’t received any form of wage support since this crisis started.£

And she contrasts the support announced for businesses at the start of the national lockdown with the situation for those affected by the local regulations: "When we had national lockdowns, there was national economic support. Now we are seeing local lockdowns, but similar support is always late, if it arrives at all.

While local restrictions will be necessary to tackle this public health crisis, they should always come hand-in hand with economic support.

“This serial incompetence is holding our country back, just as we face a difficult winter. And rather than fighting for every job, the Chancellor is leaving people to sink or swim.

“Thousands of people are already out of work, and millions more remain at risk of becoming unemployed.

“The Government should have a strategy for retraining and supporting them back into new jobs – but what he has announced doesn’t rise to scale of challenge we are face.”

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