Comparison of national statistics across the past decade reveals the staggering extent to which the Conservatives have shifted jobs from Oxfordshire and the rest of the country to London, says Cherwell District Council Labour group Leader Sean Woodcock.

Every region of the country has seen a fall in civil servants over the last ten years – except one, London has enjoyed a 6% rise (5,000 new jobs) while the South East has suffered a 26% fall, and England as a whole has lost 65,000 jobs.

In Oxfordshire, the number of civil services jobs has fallen by 1220 – 32% (data for 2020 here; data for 2010 here).

Publishing the analysis, Sean, who is standing for Labour in the County Council elections in the marginal ward of Banbury Calthorpe, said;

People in Oxfordshire, will rightly be staggered by these figures. After a decade in power, the Conservatives should be judged on their record – and here it is plain for all to see. 

We also know that this is going to get worse as waves of council employees lose their jobs because of government promises to fund them throughout the period of the COVID-19 pandemic that have been broken.

When the Conservative Government has had the opportunity to directly employ people anywhere in the country, they have chosen to take jobs from Oxfordshire and shift them to London. It’s possibly even while building homes here that are advertised as “55 minutes from London Marylebone.”

After ten years of big announcements and broken promises, the truth is the Conservative government has delivered a jobs exodus for the county. That tells you all you need to know about the Conservative’s priorities. Whatever they prioritise, it’s never us here in Oxfordshire.”