Labour's plan to tempt new retirees back to work and boost the economy

BRITAIN must celebrate the skills and talents” of older workers if it is going to lure them back to employment and boost the economy, Labour says.

- Jonathan Walker and David Williamson

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth has revealed a party crusade to tempt over-50s who have retired early.

This would mean the economy is boosted by their untapped skills, as well as preventing older workers from running into financial difficulties in later life.

Flexible hours, tailored training and revamped Jobcentres, which radiate opportunity rather than despair, would all help achieve this, said Mr Ashworth.

The Labour politician revealed his own childhood was blighted by unemployment following the closure of the Manchester Playboy Club casino where his father worked as a croupier and his mother was a Bunny girl.

Mr Ashworth, 44, said: I remember going to the dole office in the 1980s with my dad. I remember queuing up in that dole office and I remember the quite haunted looks on the men in that queue.

“It was a horrible, grey, forbidding atmosphere.”

There are 1.2 million people classed as unemployed in the UK, but experts believe another 3.5 million under 65 have simply given up on work.