I wrote in The Herald seven months ago that unemployment was rising at a deeply worrying rate.

We had seen a 28 per cent year-on-year increase in young people claiming unemployment benefits across our community.

Today, that figure stands at a 30 per cent. This isn’t a national figure, or one drawn from London or Manchester. This is here – young people in our community who are struggling to find work.

But the national picture is just as stark. There are now over one million young people not in education, employment or training, known as NEET.

The youth unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds has reached 16.2 per cent, the highest level in well over a decade.

When Labour introduced its jobs tax, tighter regulation and significant increases to the minimum wage, the Conservatives warned that the outcome would not materialise as Labour’s dream sold to young people at the last election. Businesses across our community told me the same thing.

I have held roundtables with local employers and visited countless businesses, particularly in hospitality and retail. But not a single one told me they did not want to hire young people. Not one said they intended to reduce opportunities.

It was not long before I began hearing from employers who said they could no longer take on young staff. Soon after, I began hearing from young people themselves who were losing jobs.

But what may now be hardest for Labour to ignore is one of their own.

In a Government-commissioned report published last week, Alan Milburn, a former Labour Cabinet Minister, stated clearly that Labour’s jobs tax has made employment more expensive, hitting “sectors that have historically provided many of the easiest points of entry to work” the hardest – that includes hospitality and retail.

He went further, warning that increasing minimum wages for younger workers risks pricing them out altogether. Faced with higher costs, employers are turning to older, more experienced candidates, seen as the “safer option”.

In those same entry-level sectors, from social care to food processing, agriculture and warehousing, young people are also competing directly with migrant workers for the same roles, as both groups make up a similar proportion of the workforce. That adds further pressure on opportunities that are already shrinking.

None of this comes as a surprise. I know for a fact that I have spoken to businesses based directly in our community about all three of these issues, and they have been warning about them since the policies were first proposed.

The Government may choose to ignore those warnings, and even its own report. But the impact on our community is real, it is growing, and it is something I cannot ignore.

I will continue to make the case for change, because young people here deserve better than this.