John Battle, Labour MP for Leeds West, welcomed today’s unemployment figures.

“Nationally we have the lowest unemployment for a generation – you have to go back to 1975 last time this few people were signing on.

“Unemployment in Leeds as a whole is falling too, including in my Leeds West constituency, and that’s good news. There’s less than half the number of people signing on now in Leeds than when the Labour Government came to power in 1997. That’s a combination of the national economy doing well and Leeds’s economic success, and the excellent work of the Council’s training department.

“Whatever parties – Green, Liberal Democrat or Conservative – are now planning to take over the city together, I do hope that they will respect and continue to support the work that the Council has been doing for years now training and skilling people for real jobs. People in the city of Leeds can’t afford for that service to be jeopardized now.”

Claimant count unemployment figures for May released today by the Office of National Statistics show:

· National claimant count unemployment fell by 12,000 to 862,000

· Leeds claimant count unemployment fell by 276 to 11,170

· Leeds West claimant count unemployment fell by 28 to 1,600

©John Battle MP 17th June 2004