Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, has commented on the Government’s announcement that swathing cuts are to be made to quangos.

He said that:

“Labour had a plan for steadily saving £0.5 billion by carefully closing 25% of quangos over the next few ...

Liam Byrne, Labour's Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, commenting on today's announcement by the government, said:

"Cameron's big idea is nothing of the sort. Far from being a 'revolution' it is simply a belated acceptance of Labour’s plans for smarter government."

“The power shift in public ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, said in response to the Public Administration Select Committee's report on quangos which was published today:

"The committee appears to confirm that Francis Maude is now Britain's most expensive butcher.

"Labour wants to see fewer quangos and savings made ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Minister, commenting on the newly announced independent review into the Government’s housing benefit changes, said: 

"We have been clear that we are prepared to work with the Government on housing benefit reform where we judge their proposals to be fair ...

Text of a speech given by Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, to the IPPR 9th February 2011:

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Nick can I start with a big thanks to you and the IPPR for hosting us this morning. 

Since you arrived you have helped create ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary commenting ahead of tomorrow's unemployment statistics said: 

"Labour's legacy was falling youth unemployment and a pioneering programme to get 200,000 young people back to work. The Tories scrapped that programme and now youth unemployment has escalated to ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on today's unemployment figures, said:

"The bad news on unemployment today is fresh evidence that we need a plan B for the economy.

"The Tory-led Government has put the recovery in the slow lane and now, after more ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on the Tory-led Government's welfare announcement, said:

“It would have been better if today's plan for welfare reform had come with a Plan B for the economy. With five people chasing every job, its obvious welfare to ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, today announced details of Labour’s review of future challenges for the welfare state. This working group will inform the wider economic policy review coordinated by Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls.

The Shadow Work and Pensions review will cover ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on the Welfare Reform Bill said:

“David Cameron has got to get a grip of welfare reform fast. 

“The welfare reform bill is a ramshackle reform. It offers some good ideas but with a frightening leap in the dark ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on today's unemployment statistics, said:

"Fifteen months after the recession ended unemployment has hit a 17 year high and youth unemployment has hit the highest level ever. All over Britain, families now face a summer of struggle and ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting ahead of the Tory-led Government’s announcement of its preferred bidders for their Work Programme, said:

“Unemployment has now hit a 17 year high and the benefits bill is soaring by over £12 billion.

“This government’s failure to ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on today's unemployment statistics, said: 

“There are some encouraging signs but people will be really worried that the numbers on the dole have gone up again. 

“This is helping push the benefits bill up by £12.5 billion ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to today's OECD report which warned that child poverty is set to rise thanks to the Tory-led Government's policies, said: 

"Labour lifted over half a million children out of poverty. But sadly it looks like this progress ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to the Government’s announcement on youth unemployment, said:

“We now have the highest level of youth unemployment the UK has seen in modern times. Even Iain Duncan Smith has been forced to admit it is a scandal.

“To ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to today’s unemployment figures, said: 

“We welcome any glimmer of good news but today’s figures are a sign we are not out the woods by a long stretch. 
“The claimant count is up, vacancies are down and ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to Labour Market Statistics, said:

“Today's headline fall in unemployment is welcome, but what today's figures expose is that while out of touch ministers are boasting, families are battling. They're battling another fall in wages, another ...

Fiscal Discipline in Social Security: DWP under Labour in 2015 

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, in a speech at Chance UK, today said:

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Thank you very much to Gracia and Chance UK for hosting us here this morning.

Your extraordinary work providing ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to the DWP claim that there is a record private sector employment fuelled by a jobs boom, said: 

“This Government is completely out of touch. They talk of a jobs boom when there simply isn’t enough work to ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to today’s Written Ministerial Statement on the future of the Work Capability Assessment contract, said:

“This is a direct consequence of three years appalling contract management by Iain Duncan Smith. He has quite simply let Atos spin out ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to today’s Youth Contract statistics which show just 4,690 wage incentive payments have been made since the scheme began, said:

“The Youth Contract has utterly failed to get our young people back to work. This flagship scheme ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to today’s Labour Market Statistics, said:
 
“Any shred of progress on jobs is welcome but today's figures show that economic recovery is so weak that pay is plummeting.
 
"Job creation is now so sluggish that pay-packets are ...

Speech to the Resolution Foundation on childcare and women’s employment rates

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Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, in a speech to the Resolution Foundation on childcare and women’s employment rates, said:

James, thanks very much for the opportunity to speak to ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to today’s Work Programme figures said:

“The Work Programme hasn't worked for over a million people.  

“Three years into the parliament and nearly nine out of ten people on this flagship programme have been failed. Worse of ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to an OECD report which shows young people in the UK spend almost two and a half years out of work, longer than in many of our competitors, said:

“A jobless generation is paying the price for this Government ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to Work Programme figures released by Employment Related Services Association, said: 

“These alarming figures now show something is very seriously wrong with the Work Programme. Two years since it was launched and nearly 900,000 people on the programme ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to new figures on poverty and living standards, said:

“The devastating verdict is in – in just one year this Government has pushed a million people into absolute poverty and progress in tackling relative child poverty has completely stalled.

“All ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on today’s Labour Market Statistics, said:
 
“The tiniest glimmer of light is to be welcomed but today's figures confirm the awful truth that there's been practically zero progress tackling unemployment since last summer. Pay-packets have continued ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on the rebuke of Grant Shapps by the UK Statistics Authority, said:
 
“This is a Government that doesn’t like to let the facts get in the way of a good story.
 
“Grant Shapps may know a thing or ...

The Road Back to Full Employment – Speech by Liam Byrne

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Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, in a speech to IPPR North, said:

There are few better places than here, to speak about the task of rebuilding Britain as a country of full ...

Labour's Policy Review explores radical ideas to tackle unemployment blackspots

Labour is exploring radical plans to give local authorities and regional bodies a new role in cutting our dole queues – and bring down benefit spending - by helping to shape the way billions of pounds in employment funding is spent ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on today’s Labour Market Statistics, said:
 
“We now have definitive proof the Government has simply failed to get Britain back to work. Today we've learned the number in work is down, unemployment is up, and more people ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to the latest rebuke of the Government by Andrew Dilnot, Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, said: 

"Iain Duncan Smith is living in la la land. His ideas don't work so he's now literally making up stories ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to research by the IFS showing more than one million children are expected to be living in poverty by 2020, said:

“The IFS’ verdict is clear – by both internationally recognised measures, this Government is set to plunge over a ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to research by the NIESR showing underemployment has risen from 6.2 per cent of the UK workforce in 2008 to 9.9 per cent in 2012, said:

“Underemployment is the untold story of Britain’s jobs crisis. Under ...

New analysis by the Labour Party shows that the most deprived areas of the country are getting a double hit from local government cuts and cuts to tax credits and benefits.

The North East of England is the worst hit area, with cuts amounting to £566 per head. Least affected ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow DWP Secretary, speaking ahead of Iain Duncan Smith's Social Justice Strategy speech on Wednesday, said:

"This new report is a damming verdict on this Government's disastrous economic policies and Iain Duncan Smith's abject failure to get a grip of unemployment. His ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to warnings from the Government’s own advisers that child poverty could get worse, said:

“Labour lifted over one million children out of poverty. Now this Government is forecast to plunge one million children into poverty by the end ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on today’s Labour Market Statistics, said:

“Three years on it's now clear the Government's plan is failing, and failing badly. Not only are more people unemployed than at the election, it’s soaring up. Seventy thousand ...

96,041 into 3,688 won’t go – councils unprepared for impact of David Cameron’s Bedroom Tax Councils will be unable to help 19 out of 20 families hit by the Bedroom Tax, new figures have revealed.

Labour Party FoI requests to 37 local authorities show 96,041 families ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow DWP Secretary, responding to today’s Public Accounts Committee Select Committee report, said:
 
“The welfare revolution we were promised is descending into total chaos, and its hardworking families paying the price.
 
“The report reveals the woeful inadequacy of Discretionary Housing Payments to help people ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at a summit on the impact of the Bedroom Tax on disabled people, today revealed fresh evidence of the devastating impact this Government is having on disabled people.
 
At the event in Southwark, Liam Byrne revealed fresh ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to reports in the Guardian of a major scandal in the DWP's sanction's regime, said:

"This is why we took difficult decisions on the Jobseekers' Bill to secure an independent review of sanctions. We knew there were ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to today’s Labour Market Statistics, said: 
 
“Budget day begins with a clear sign that George Osborne has failed.
 
“Half way through the Parliament, Britain is still being scarred by rising unemployment and it is our next generation that ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to changes announced to the Bedroom Tax, said: 

“David Cameron’s Bedroom Tax has descended into total chaos. Today’s announcement doesn’t bring forward one extra penny for victims of this wretched tax.

“Ministers have said nothing today ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to reports in the Daily Telegraph that ‘Work Scheme refunds could cost millions’, said:

“Bungling DWP ministers have turned the Work Programme into a West Coast mainline-style fiasco. Hundreds of thousands of sanctions might now be illegal because Iain ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, responding to yet more government confusion over the Bedroom Tax, said:
 
“The chaos engulfing the Bedroom Tax is deepening by the day.
 
“Last week we learnt that even the Prime Minister doesn’t know how hard the Bedroom Tax will ...

Liam Byrne MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on the warning by the Archbishop of Canterbury on the benefit changes, said:

"This government's Strivers Tax is going to hit working families hard on the same day as they hand millionaires a whopping great tax cut. In ...

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne will be launching a major Labour campaign to highlight the unfairness of David Cameron's Bedroom Tax, in Hull on Monday 4 March.

The launch will be the first in a series of events ahead of the introduction of the bedroom tax in ...

Figures buried in the detail of the Government's Bedroom Tax Impact Assessment show a quarter of the people affected by David Cameron’s Bedroom Tax are single mums and single dads.

It is now clear that of the £480 million it raises, £100 million comes from the pockets of ...