THERE is a war on Newport jobs- from several directions.

The local economy had recovered. A serious collapse of industrial jobs was replaced by the import of several thousand public sector clerical jobs. They have settled down well and prospered in their Newport habitat.

A total of 150 jobs were pilfered from our Passport Office. The slim-down has emaciated the passport service into present chaos. I asked the Passport supremo on Tuesday last week to bring the jobs back.

Sacking Newport workers was planned to save £2.6 million a year. In May this year they paid £1 million in overtime costs. By December overtime costs will be £5m more than in 2013. The economics of the madhouse.

Elsewhere in Newport the vastly successful Newport Shared Services are under attack from Government malice. Since 2006 they have saved the country £120 million.

The privatiser Steria group has wasted £56 million. No pat on the back for the Newport staff. Just a kick in teeth from the Government who threaten to export the jobs to India. Steria’s failure is rewarded: Newport staff’s success is punished.

The Financial Times carried a snide attack from Londoners against Newport’s Office for National Statistics. The metropolitan elite has always resented the move from England’s capital. They want the jobs repatriated to over-crowded, over-heated, jobs-rich London. We must remind them that the move to Newport has been a brilliant success.

With Jessica Morden and other Welsh MPs I am on the barricades defending Newport’s jobs.

Select Committees do great work - but are useless when ignored by Government. I strongly backed a demand from one of my Select Committees to jam the Revolving Door.

This is the racket where senior politicians, military and civil servants prostitute their insider knowledge in retirement to get lucrative jobs that damage public interests.

The body that claims to police these abuses is a toothless pussy cat without power of influence. Select Committees should be answered by Government in two months. This one has been ignored for 21 months.

Hope it’s not the retirement ambitions of ministers and civil servants that’s delaying their answer.

Sangin, Musa Qala, Now Zad, Kajaki, all defended and liberated at the cost of the lives of hundreds of brave British soldiers. All these places are now reported to be controlled by the Taliban. I will give a talk before the NATO summit asking ‘Can Afghanistan be fairly described as ‘MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?’