PRESS RELEASE

June 18th, 2010

Youth jobs blow

Greenock and Inverclyde MSP believes there could be a devastating jobs cut in Inverclyde unless the UK Government reinstates the Future Jobs Fund and commits to the aircraft carriers project.

The MSP made the plea for local jobs at a meeting with the Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore when he visited the Scottish Parliament this week.

More than 200 young people in Inverclyde have benefited from job opportunities from the Futures Job Fund since it was launched last October and this will rise to 480 before the funding is cut by Prime Minister David Cameron next March.

The new coalition government has also ordered a defence review which threatens to scrap the aircraft carriers project at the shipyard in Govan, where roughly 500 local people still work.

Following the meeting of Scottish Parliament conveners and the Scottish Secretary, Mr McNeil said: “Supporting people into work has never been more important and the government has a duty to do all it can in these difficult times.

“Many young people have already benefited from the Future Jobs Fund by getting their first job and it would be devastating for a community like ours if the jobs that hinged on these aircraft carriers contracts were lost.

“This community knows the lasting harm that unemployment can have – we remember it only too well from that last time we had a Conservative Prime Minister.

“That is why I asked the Scottish Secretary to fight for both the carriers project and a replacement for the jobs fund."

ENDS