A Sussex MP has expressed his concern that unemployment is rising as families are getting into "record levels" of personal debt.

Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, was responding to unemployment figures released by the House of Commons Library which show an 8.8 per cent rise in the number of people in Lewes claiming job seekers allowance between December 2004 and December 2005.

Mr Baker said: "These figures are extremely worrying. The UK appears to be heading back to the bad old days of economic insecurity and queues at the job centre. Increasing unemployment when households are taking on record levels of personal borrowing spells real trouble."

He added: "The rise in people claiming job seekers allowance can no longer be dismissed as a temporary blip and is now becoming a very worrying permanent trend."

A spokeswoman for the department for work and pensions said there has been a rise in claimants but the number of people in work across the UK increased by 200,000 last year.