UK unemployment is “a real problem” that is deep-seated, Care Minister Stephen Kinnock has said.
He told GB News: “Well, we’ve actually created 380,000 new jobs since we came into office in July 2024 and we were the fastest growing economy in the G7 for the first six months of this year.
“There is definitely important work happening to grow the economy and create those jobs. The problem is around economic inactivity. We saw the welfare budget balloon under the Conservatives by about £88 billion, and a lot of that is about writing people off. Young people should be in work.
“People who can work should be working, and that’s why we’ve got Alan Milburn doing a review into getting more young people back into work. We’ve got a guarantee now that 18 to 21-year-olds must be in employment, education or training.
“We’ve also got the Stephen Timms review looking at the role that disability benefits are playing in terms of this issue around economic inactivity.
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“It is a real problem. We’re grappling with that problem, but it is a deep-seated problem that’s going to take some time to fix.”
On the planned strikes by doctors, he said: “We’re deeply disappointed by the decision that they’ve taken. We’ve given them a 28.9% pay rise. They’re coming back and asking for 26% more. That’s just not living in the real world.
“We’ve also said we’ll do emergency legislation to solve this issue around foreign trained doctors being prioritised over British trained doctors, one of Boris Johnson’s brilliant ideas which has to be sorted out.
“We’ve offered on that, they rejected that, we’ve said we will facilitate them doing their strike in January, rather than doing it now, just before Christmas at the peak period of pressure for our NHS.
“I’s difficult not to draw the conclusion that they’ve just decided to inflict maximum damage on our NHS. And that is irresponsible. It is reckless and it’s dangerous.”
On president Trump suing the BBC, Kinnock said: “Well, the BBC made a mistake in that Panorama program. They apologised for it. In fact, the Director General resigned over it. So big steps have been taken to acknowledge the mistake that was made, but the BBC has also said that there’s no case to answer in terms of the broader point that President Trump appears to be making around defamation or libel or, I don’t know the details of what he’s bringing forward, but this Labour government strongly supports our BBC.
“It’s a source of pride to us that it’s such a respected and loved institution, not just in our country, but also around the world.”
He added: “It’s an independent institution. We believe firmly in the independence of the BBC, funded through the license fee. And I’m sure that the Prime Minister would be saying to anyone, whether it’s Donald Trump or anybody else, frankly, that he is proud of the BBC, that he stands up for its independence, and that the BBC makes its case, makes its argument.
“And if you know Donald Trump wants to litigate on that then, then let’s see how that turns out with the lawyers.”
