A top politician donned a hard hat today to meet unemployed young people working at the Westfield building site.

Shadow cabinet member Rachel Reeves visited the under-construction shopping centre as part of a tour of the city to see the Council’s jobs programme in action.

Mrs Reeves, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and MP for Leeds West, met two of the three apprentices currently working on-site.

Luke Cariss, 22, of Bradford, said it was the first time he had worked on a construction site.
He said: “It’s better than signing on. I had been signing on for about a year.”

They found their placements through the Bradford Council’s Apprenticeship Training Agency (ATA), part of its flagship £10m Get Bradford Working programme.

Mrs Reeves also visited social landlord Incommunities, which has taken on staff through another strand of Get Bradford Working called the Employment Opportunities Fund.