GORDON BROWN urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak today to deliver a fresh economic plan “within days” to stem a “tsunami of job losses” from the end of October.

The former Labour chancellor and PM warned that many currently unemployed people have a 2,000 to one chance of getting an advertised job.

In his first keynote speech to Labour conference in a decade, he said that the Tory Chancellor should extend the furlough scheme for industries most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The current job-retention scheme, which has paid 80 per cent of workers’ wages since April, is due to finish on October 31.

Mr Brown, who is backing the new national Alliance for Full Employment (AFFE) formed by Labour representatives from across the regions of Britain, warned that jobseekers are up against “the worst odds against finding a job for 50 years.”

There were 4,228 applicants for a trainee paralegal position in London, 2,932 applicants  for a warehouse job in Northumberland, 2,653 applicants for a factory job in Sunderland, 2,154 applicants for an administrative job in Coventry and 15,000 applicants for 10 assembly operative jobs in Birmingham, according to CV Library.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “Only urgent government action can prevent a jobs catastrophe. I urge ministers to act on the AFFE agenda without delay.”