Nick Clegg: Creating jobs... and adding to Labour’s misery

The job of us all now, as a party of government, is to help other people into work. And, bluntly, we are the only authentic party of jobs, the only party that can speak credibly about creating jobs and jobs that last.

The Conservatives have a bizarre idea that to create more jobs you need to increase insecurity. They aren’t the Party of Jobs. They are the Party of Fire At Will. Remember that? A proposal for bosses to get rid of staff no questions asked. A policy dreamed up by a Conservative donor without a
shred of evidence to back it up. So we said no.

But let’s be in no doubt that without us taking a stand in government it would have happened. Without us job security would have been a thing of the past, with employers able to get rid of staff on a whim.

Liberal Democrats know it’s important to help businesses. That’s why our Government has given a National Insurance cut to firms, encouraging them to employ more people. But we also know that workers deserve the right to be treated fairly. So we will never sacrifice proper working conditions for the sake of a few easy headlines about “red tape”.

Some Conservatives also seem to think that a job in the private sector somehow has more merit than someone working as a nurse or a teacher.

But we know that you shouldn’t divide public and private sector workers as if only jobs in the private sector matter. The truth is that in both the public and private sectors people have made sacrifices: longer hours, more flexibility, pay freezes, to protect jobs. So we should be praising all of this country’s workers, public and private sector, for the determination they have shown in tough economic times.

And what about Labour? They used to have a lot to say about jobs. They predicted soaring unemployment. Ed Miliband actually said we had a programme that would “lead to the disappearance of a million jobs”. Now that we have actually created a million he’s gone strangely quiet on that prediction. Have you noticed how miserable they look when unemployment goes down? In the same way they gambled on an endless boom when they were in government they prayed for an endless recession when they were in opposition.

Here’s what Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said recently: “Do I think the last Labour government was profligate, spent too much, had too much national debt? No I don’t think there’s any evidence for that.”

But we can campaign as the party of jobs. We are the only party that believes in releasing the potential of everyone, creating a society where everybody gets a fair chance in life. And that means making sure they get the opportunity to find work. We know that unemployment isn’t just about statistics or a rising bill for benefits. It’s about ambitions thwarted, potential frustrated, and the spirit-crushing sense that you are not being allowed to take control of your own destiny. And youth unemployment, where people can find themselves left on the scrap heap without even having been given the chance to prove themselves, is a scourge we must tackle.

But the Liberal Democrats have a proud story to tell on jobs and the economy.

We can tell people how we took the right decisions in government to make sure interest rates were kept down and protected people from the economic crises we have seen elsewhere in Europe.

And we can point to our record of action in government to show how we have worked tirelessly to create jobs even in the tough times. More people in work than ever before. A record number of women in work. Employment up by a million.

And we can tell people how we want to do even more: more apprentices, more help for business, more bank lending. Building a stronger economy in a fairer society enabling every person to get on in life.

This party has campaigned on many things over the years. Hong Kong passports; rights for Gurkhas, Iraq. If we put the same zeal into this campaign as we did into those, a million households could see their lives transformed. A million new opportunities will have been created. And we won’t be asking the Government to do something. We will be doing it in government because we are the party of fairness; we are the party of freedom; and, yes, we are the party of jobs.

*Nick Clegg is the Deputy Prime Minister, Sheffield Hallam MP and Liberal Democrat leader. This is an edited version of his party conference speech.