THE Telegraph has asked Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West’s general election candidates a series of questions ahead of the July 4 poll, inviting them to provide extended responses for our readers’ consideration.
The first of these questions is: What would you do to boost job opportunities in Inverclyde?
Labour candidate Martin McCluskey responded:
LABOUR will focus on growing the economy if we are elected as the
next UK Government.
As your MP, my priority would be holding on to all the jobs we have
now and attracting more. Within my first 100 days as your MP I would
meet with the leaders of all the major employers in Inverclyde to
understand the challenges they face and support they need. We need to
work with existing employers to help them to expand opportunities and
the number of jobs they have available.
My next priority would be attracting new jobs to the area. My focus
would be attracting the next generation of highly skilled
manufacturing jobs in the energy sector to our community. There are
billions of pounds of investment coming to Scotland in this sector and
I want our community to get its fair share. I have already begun
discussions with energy sector leaders about the jobs we could locate
in our area and with Ed Miliband, who will be Labour’s next energy
secretary, about Government support that could come from Labour’s
plans for GB Energy – a new publicly owned energy company that will be
headquartered in Scotland if Labour wins the election.
Finally, we need to ensure that education and training is preparing
people for the jobs of the future. Our college sector has been
hollowed out and needs more support from Government. I will work with
the colleges and employers to ensure people can get the training they
need to access employment.”