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Benefits could be cut if youth job and training offer rejected, minister says
The work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, is being asked by Sky News’ Trevor Phillips about the government’s plans to offer young people an apprenticeship, training, education, or help to find a job.
Up to one million young people on universal credit are expected to benefit from learning or employment opportunities under the scheme. Youth unemployment is high, owing in part to the continued impact of Covid and the cost of living crisis.
Phillips asks McFadden if benefits under universal credit will be withdrawn if people don’t take up the offer under the scheme.
“Yeah, it could be. We see this as both an offer and an obligation,” he said.
He adds that he has been “struck” by slides within the DWP showing that the number of young people (about one million) not in education, employment or training (Neet) has been rising for the “last four years or so”. “That is when it really started to rise”.
Keir Starmer says former deputy PM Angela Rayner will return to cabinet
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. Keir Starmer has said the “hugely talented” former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, will return to his cabinet.
Rayner stood down from the government in September after the prime minister’s ethics adviser found she had breached the ministerial code over her underpayment of stamp duty on her £800,000 seaside flat.
Rayner had been seen as a frontrunner to succeed Starmer, who is hugely unpopular with the public, until the shock resignation.
Starmer said in an interview with The Observer on Sunday that Rayner, who had her first baby at 16 and grew up on one of Stockport’s poorest council estates, is the best example of social mobility “this country has ever seen”.
Asked if he misses her, the prime minister told journalist Rachel Sylvester: “Yes, of course I do. I was really sad that we lost her. As I said to her at the time, she’s going to be a major voice in the Labour movement.”
Pressed as to whether she will be back in the cabinet, Starmer said: “Yes. She’s hugely talented.” Stick with us as we give you the latest on this story and the other major political developments in the UK.
