Provide a living wage In 2010 the Coalition unashamedly set out their stall stating that they would enact policies that would make it easier for employers to fire staff.

This has resulted in Coalition government policies that openly encourage a programme of mass casualisation of the British workforce.

A bewildering variety of non-standard employment arrangements has mushroomed over this period.

This includes an exponential rise of zero-hour contracts, bogus self- employment arrangements and the growing use of agency umbrella companies that exist for the sole purpose of exploiting loopholes in employment law to suppress wages whilst frustrating hard-won employment rights and human rights.

Many in Wiltshire will recognise this detrimental change in the employment landscape.

Independent research reveals nationally that, on top of the two million unemployed, there are five million working people caught in this poverty trap, struggling to exist day to day to provide for their families and keep a roof over their heads.

This is borne out by research that shows the unprecedented rise in the use of food banks and the unacceptable number of children who attend school without having had breakfast. Coming into the winter months it will be a choice between heat or eat for many.

Reluctantly, putting aside the heartbreaking social cost, it has to be recognised that the economic ramifications have and will continue to affect us all.

By suppressing the pay and rights of so many, income tax receipts have stagnated with the result that George Osborne has been forced to borrow more money to plug the fiscal gap. It is the case that the Coalition has borrowed more money in four years than Labour borrowed in 13 years of Government.

The tragedy is that, if more money was to be borrowed, the focus should have been investment to create jobs that pay a living wage with assured hours, improving the quality of life for millions and kick-starting a recovery that would benefit all and not just the few.

Instead, it is the case that the government is increasing borrowing to prop up the Coalition’s failed economic plan.

Chris Watts, Labour Prospective MP for Devizes, Lansdowne Terrace, Devizes.