Labour failing on ethnic minority employment

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 17th Jul 2008

Commenting on today's Public Accounts Committee report on increasing employment rates for ethnic minorities, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Jenny Willott said:

"Labour's welfare policies have been neglecting hard to reach groups for a decade and ethnic minorities are sadly no different. This situation is dramatically worse for ethnic minority women.

"The training and language courses on offer are falling short and must be improved as a matter of urgency or they will simply be a continuing waste of money.

"Ministers must stop chasing headlines with badly thought out gimmicks and instead allow initiatives time to work. Otherwise we will never find a formula that really delivers for ethnic minorities."