Holly Lynch MP today questioned whose side David Cameron was on after ONS figures published this morning showed an estimated 53,000 people in Yorkshire and Humber working on zero-hours contracts.

The figures show that there has been a sharp increase across the country in the number of people employed on such contracts. Zero-hours work is on the rise with the total number of contracts rising to 1.5 million and the number of people reporting their main source of employment as a zero-hours contract having risen by almost 20 per cent since last year.

At the same time, there are now over 1.2 million people working part time because they could not find full time work – 200,000 more than when the Tories took office in 2010.

Holly Lynch, MP for Halifax, said:

“Too many people in our region have been forced to rely upon zero hours contracts. The news that an estimated 53,000 people are now on them in Yorkshire and Humber shows the scale of the problem we face.

“Zero hours contracts don’t offer the security families need and certainly aren’t the way to sustainable economic growth. This government is not prepared to take action to end exploitative zero hours contracts and with their planned cuts to tax credits for those in work, families will be rightly questioning just whose side David Cameron is on.”