Skills test as Boris Johnson faces question time – The Yorkshire Post says

Yet this does not lessen the concerns about soaring unemployment after jobless claims under Universal Credit surged by a record 856,000 to 2.1 million in April compared with the previous month, an increase of nearly 70 per cent.

And with worse to come – these figures only cover the beginning of the pandemic – there will be no excuses if Mr Johnson does not have adequate answers when he faces Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs today.

As well as some candour about the Government’s latest projections on employment trends, and the extent to which it will be prepared to continue subsidising private businesses, Ministers need to be thinking about other measures, like skills provision, which need to be put in place so that the number of individuals facing long-term unemployment is kept to a minimum. This did not happen in the 1980s.

Three questions, therefore, for Mr Johnson. When will he publish a jobs recovery strategy – and who will be in charge? Will he be prepared to give leaders in Yorkshire the powers, and resources, that they need to meet this region’s bespoke needs? And when does he expect the rate of unemployment to return to its pre-pandemic level?

Even if it is still too early to open up many sectors of the economy, it’s not too premature for Ministers to take the necessary steps now to get the country on the road to recovery when the time is right.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson