WATCH: Warning of a ‘lost generation’ issued as Labour grandee makes terrifying prediction

The chief of a report into youth unemployment has issued a sobering warning about the prospect of a “lost generation”.

Speaking on the publication of the report, former Health Secretary Alan Milburn shared a terrifying forecast from his investigation.

He said that the one in 18 young people currently not in work, training or education (Neets) could rise to a ruinous one in 6 in just six years.

“We do not just have a chronic problem. It is getting worse, not getting better. And we have neither a system nor a plan to deal with it,” Mr Milburn warned.

“We are at risk of a lost generation,” the former Health Secretary said, adding that the “deeper and far more corrosive” threat of “youth detachment from the labour market” was driving the trend.

“As an ageing generation becomes increasingly reliant on the next generation to sustain it, every young person has to have more opportunities to learn or earn and to get a job.

“The problem is that for too many young people, opportunities are not growing. They're shrinking.

“Reversing that starts with understanding what is driving it in the first place.”

WATCH THE FULL CLIP ABOVE