LOCAL LABOUR CANDIDATE WILL FIGHT FOR HIGH WAGE JOBS IN CAITHNESS

29th January 2015

The Scottish Labour candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, John Erskine has vowed to fight to attract high wage jobs to the constituency if elected in May.

This vow comes after figures from the Trussell Trust revealed that for the month of December 2014, 48% of users of their food banks in Caithness had to do so because of low wages. The figures also showed that 9% of local users had to because of benefit changes while another 27% had to use it due to benefit delays. Figures for Scotland as whole show that in December 2014, 10489 people had to use on of their 48 Scottish-wide food banks. This is 13% increase from December 2013 when 9263 people used Trussell Trust food banks.

John Erskine said:"It is deeply worrying that 48% of local food bank users were in work yet struggled to make ends meet. It demonstrates that local people are experiencing a real cost of living crisis which neither the UK nor Scottish Government are prepared to solve. I am really concerned that these figures are for December when the weather turned particularly cold. If working people had to use food banks that means they may have had to choose between heating and eating."

"This highlights the need to strengthen the minimum wage and promote the living wage. A Labour Government is committed to doing both. It also seems clear that there are not enough high paying jobs in our area. As the local MP, I will work with local agencies and local businesses to bring more high wage jobs to the area and ensure we have high quality infrastructure that entices new businesses to create these high skilled, high paying jobs. A Labour Government will freeze local peoples' energy bills and reform the energy market. We will cut taxes for the poorest and raise them for the richest. We can and will address this cost of living crisis."