Umunna demands Treasury publication of unemployment predictions
Chuka Umunna MP has today submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Treasury to obtain a memo outlining the true impact of last week’s Budget on unemployment.
Today, The Guardian reported a leaked Treasury memo predicting 1.3 million job losses over the next five years, specifying “100-120,000 public sector jobs and 120-140,000 private sector jobs assumed to be lost per annum for five years through cuts”.
In Prime Minister’s Questions today, David Cameron was asked about precise details of this prediction by the Leader of the Opposition, but failed to provide answers.
The leaked memo also claims that 2.5 million private sector jobs can be created over the next five years, The Guardian reports. However, according to the Office of National Statistics, just 1.5 million such jobs were created over the ten years of growth between 1997 and 2007.
Chancellor George Osborne, in his Budget statement last week said:
“I am not going to hide hard choices from the British people or bury them in the small print of the Budget documents. You’re going to hear them straight from me, here in this speech.”
“The unemployment rate is forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility to peak this year at 8.1 per cent and then fall for each of the next four years, to reach 6.1 per cent in 2015.”
However, reports of the leaked memo have thrown doubt over this assessment.
Last week, Mr Umunna was elected by his colleagues to serve on the Treasury Select Committee, and since his election has challenged government ministers on the abolition of the Future Jobs Fund in the House of Commons.
Commenting on his Freedom has of Information request, Mr Umunna said: “It is essential that the government comes clean about the true extent of job losses resulting from last week’s Budget.
“This memo is deeply worrying, suggesting that the true picture is very different from the one painted by the Chancellor in his Budget statement last week. The Government must explain why this information has not been made public.
“Many people will not just be shocked by the scale of the unemployment that will be caused by last week’s budget. They will also be angry and disappointed that, just weeks in, the new government is attempting to hide this from the public when the Chancellor claimed he would disclose all details only a week before.”
