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Esther McVey was labelled a “disgrace” for dodging a question about the closure of Job Centres in Liverpool.

The new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions was quizzed in the Commons by Wavertree MP Luciana Berger about the Tories’ plan to shut down the only two Job Centres in the area - leaving local people with nowhere to go for employment support.

Ms Berger asked the former Wirral MP if she had looked at plans by Liverpool City Council to try and co-locate Job Centres in some of its other buildings as a means of still offering people a place to get advice, support and benefits - but she managed to completely avoid the question and suggest things have vastly improved in her “home town” of Liverpool.

Ms Berger asked: “Can I ask the Secretary of State if she’s had the opportunity to review the very helpful and generous offer made by Liverpool City Council to her predecessor to provide office space for closure threatened Job Centres.

“There are two Job Centres in my constituency - not one but two - that her government wishes to close, leaving my constituents with zero Job Centres - and they are due to close in a few weeks’ time.

“Has the Secretary of State had an opportunity to review that offer, to ensure that my constituents can continue to receive some employment support?”

In her response, Ms McVey elected not to deal with the subject of Job Centres closing or the offer made by the city council at all.

She said: “It is really important that everybody gets the support they need and actually a lot of the support that will be going forward will actually be outreach work, so that they don’t need to go to the Job Centre Plus.”

She added: “But obviously I am pleased that in the Liverpool City Area, which is my home town - employment is now far higher than it was in 2010 and when you look at the unemployment rates of the Labour Government - unemployment 2.8m in 2008, even before the banking crisis.

“But now it is 1.4m, so we are supporting people and we will continue to support people because that is what this Conservative Government does.”

Unsurprisingly Ms Berger was left unimpressed by the response she received.

She said: ”It is a disgrace that the Secretary of State should dodge such an important question but sadly I am not surprised.

“In a few weeks the last Job Centres in Liverpool Wavertree will close and leave thousands of my constituents without the support they deserve.

“Liverpool Council have offered a practical solution to prevent this happening but Esther McVey is simply ignoring that offer and pressing on with the closures.

“Maybe she doesn’t understand or maybe she doesn’t care – either way, it’s my constituents who are going to suffer.”