Shadow chancellor Ed Balls called for another tax on bankers’ bonuses to fund job schemes for young unemployed people when he visited a new project in Keighley.

The former Minister said more needed to be done to tackle the soaring numbers of people joining dole queues across Bradford district after this week’s announcement that the country was officially back in recession.

In the past 12 months there have been 1,385 more young people seeking employment across the district, pushing the total number of 18 to 24-year-olds looking for work to more than 6,115.

Speaking at the start of Our Town, Our Future, Our Voice – a project to work with young people at risk becoming long-term unemployed – at University Academy Keighley today, the Labour MP said “not nearly enough” was being done for young people struggling to find jobs.

Mr Balls said: “What the Government ought to do is repeat the bank bonus tax for a second year and use that to get a job guarantee for every young person.

“It could be done and it should be done.”