Pat McFadden MP Wolverhampton South East Representing Bilston South, Bilston North, East Park, Ettingshall North, Ettingshall South and Spring Vale, Bentley and Darlaston North, Darlaston South, Willenhall South.
I welcome the support announced at the weekend for the Robin music venue in Bilston and for Gazebo Theatre company. These organisations cannot operate right now for obvious reasons but like similar organisations all over the country they still have significant costs. Without Government support, we could lose many arts and culture venues for good. Yet welcome as this support is, there are still many thousands of workers in these sectors, a lot of them freelancers, who have either not had support at all or who face losing it from the end of this month. We still face a huge jobs crisis over the coming months at a time when Government support is set to be significantly downgraded. The long term human and economic costs of this could be enormous. Already in our constituency the claimant count is almost twice the national average. We have to do everything we can to prevent a return to the mass unemployment of the past.