Ed Miliband in Midlands to outline Labour's youth jobless plan

Ed Miliband will be in Warwick today to announce that long-term unemployed young people will be guaranteed a job under Labour.

All under-25s out of work for more than one year will be given paid employment, funded by a bank bonus tax, for six months, the party leader will pledge.

Mr Miliband will insist the "real jobs guarantee" goes much further than the current Government's youth contract, which offers a subsidy to employers hiring young people.

No doubt he will also say the new scheme is stronger than the previous Labour government's Future Jobs Fund, which offered six months work to the long-term jobless, as the new scheme will include a training requirement.

Young people who turn down the work or are sacked would face sanctions, including temporary withdrawal of benefit payments.

Mr Miliband will tell Labour's youth conference on jobs that the challenges faced today "do not seem large" compared to the wartime era but there is "more pessimism" now about what politics can achieve.

Lashing out at the coalition's record youth unemployment, which has reached more than one million, he will accuse the Government of cutting opportunities for young people.

Under the scheme the Government would pay a full wage directly to business to cover 25 hours of work each week at the minimum wage, the equivalent of £4,000 per job.

In return, employers would be expected to train the young person for a minimum of 10 hours a week.

Sayeeda Warsi, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, said: