Labour's much vaunted New Deal for the young unemployed had produced "woeful" results, Frank Field, the former minister for welfare reform said yesterday.

The programme needed a big revamp, given that for the £1.9bn spent, youth unemployment was now 18,000 higher than when Labour took power. The number of 18- to 24-year-olds classed as "economically inactive" was up by 283,000, and the number classified as "not in employment, education or training" was 131,000 higher than in 1997, he said.