Sheila Gilmore warns of job shortfall

EDINBURGH East Labour MP Sheila Gilmore has warned rising unemployment threatens to undermine the Government's welfare reforms.

She said she backed efforts to give people who are fit to work more incentive to take a job when they are offered one, but questioned where the jobs would come from.

She said: "Already many people that used to work in the construction industry in Edinburgh have been laid off, and the upcoming cuts threaten to make this problem worse.

"We can't take people's benefits away from them if there are no jobs to offer them."