Pembrokeshire Preseli MP Stephen Crabb is calling for action on jobless youths as the financial crisis reaches boiling point.

Mr Crabb warned that further job losses are inevitable as a “freezing up” of recruitment takes place in a number of sectors, with many firms already resorting to staff cuts.

Arguing against ministers’ claims that youth unemployment had been “virtually eradicated” over the last 11 years, Mr Crabb revealed statistics showing that the problem had in fact worsened.

Speaking in a House of Commons debate, the MP praised the work of Job Centre Plus in Pembrokeshire as well as the county’s Prince’s Trust programmes, helping young people to get back on track and gain the skills needed to enable them to enter the job market.

Mr Crabb recently sat in on CV-writing workshops and participated in team-building activities at the Prince’s Trust activity centre in Pembroke Dock.

He appealed to the Government to do everything in its power to support charities like the Prince’s Trust, describing the current failure to reduce youth unemployment as “a stain against the reputation of this Government.”