LAST week, I welcomed the news that unemployment levels across Britain and Inverclyde have fallen.

However, the Prime Minister was wrong to claim the economy is fixed when the majority of people across Britain are yet to feel the effects of economic recovery where it really matters — in their pockets.

While more people may be in work, the majority are working harder for longer for less. Prices are surging ahead of wages again this month while average pay is down £1,600 a year since the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats came to office.

The truth is that under this one-term government, people are worse off, not better off, than they were when Labour left office in 2010.

If we are to meet the challenges that lie ahead and if we are to succeed, it is vital we start by re-building the economy so it works for everyone, not just a few at the very top.

Labour have begun to spell out what will be in our first Queen’s Speech if we win next year’s General Election.

Labour’s pledges are to: scrap the ‘bedroom tax’, freeze gas and electricity bills, raise the national minimum wage, reintroduce the 50p tax rate, stop the abuse of zero hours contracts, guarantee a job for young unemployed people, abolish Cameron’s gagging law and devolve power away from Whitehall to British cities which would include a New Scotland Act in the first year of a Labour government to give the Scottish Parliament new powers making it more accountable for the money it spends.

Speaking about his pledges to Britain at Labour’s National Policy Forum at the weekend, Labour leader Ed Miliband said: “It is about standing up for the hopes and aspirations of people. And that is our mission.

“That must be our mission, to narrow the gap between the dreams that people can see around them and their chances of realising them” Labour is the party that will make that mission a reality for modern Britain by delivering the changes that our country needs.