For­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young has ac­cused the gov­ern­ment of us­ing dis­trac­tions to di­vert at­ten­tion from wors­en­ing eco­nom­ic con­di­tions, af­ter fig­ures from the Cen­tral Sta­tis­ti­cal Of­fice (CSO) showed rough­ly 6,000 jobs were lost in the first quar­ter of 2026.

In a state­ment on Tues­day, Young said while Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was lead­ing what he de­scribed as a "dis­trac­tion cam­paign", thou­sands of cit­i­zens, in­clud­ing some of the coun­try's most vul­ner­a­ble, were un­em­ployed and strug­gling to sup­port their fam­i­lies.

"Whilst Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar is lead­ing a dis­trac­tion cam­paign there are tens of thou­sands of cit­i­zens in­clud­ing some of our most vul­ner­a­ble who are un­em­ployed. They and their fam­i­lies are hurt­ing, wor­ried about where the next meal will come from and how chil­dren will re­turn to school," he said.