Last week figures from the Office of National Statistics showed unemployment has risen to its highest level in four years.
This was both inevitable and predictable.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves believes herself to be a world-leading economist, so you have to question, how was it that everyone else in the country knew that hiking taxes on employer National Insurance contributions and lowering the threshold at which the tax is paid – making it more expensive to employ people –would destroy jobs, destroy businesses and destroy the economy.
It seems the only two people who did not see this train coming down the track was the Chancellor and her socialist boss the Prime Minister.
I raised this in Parliament, but Ms Reeves could not give an answer. Her silence is no consolation for those who have lost their jobs, or those searching for employment to find fewer opportunities.
The slowdown in the jobs market is a direct result of government’s “jobs tax”. Businesses leaders have warned repeatedly that companies are holding off on hiring or replacing staff that leave due to rising costs per employee.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies reports that an employee on the minimum wage working full time earning £22,000 now costs their employer an extra £770 a year in NI alone or an additional £900 for a medium earner on £33,000.
I know from speaking to many of my businesses across Tatton how concerned they are by this. We need to be supporting our businesses and keeping people in work and creating more job opportunities.
Supporting business means more people in work and more receipts for the Exchequer, in turn generating more cash to be spent on public services like the NHS. Fewer people in work means an increase in the benefits bill and less money in their pocket to spend, which also spells bad news for our businesses and high streets. It really is that simple.
I’ve opposed this policy since the beginning and will keep doing so, as it is devastating for our businesses. Government must heed warnings from economists, accountants, businesses leaders and others, and drop its tax on businesses and jo
