Starmer urged to stick to manifesto following reports lifting of youth minimum wage may be delayed – UK politics live | Politics
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Federation of Small Businesses He said he did not support raising the youth minimum wage to bring it in line with the full adult wage. In an interview via Sky NewsTina McKenzie, FSB’s head of policy and advocacy, said:
Youth unemployment is at its highest level in the last 10 years. When will they start believing what we say?
He said his message to the government was:
Take your head out of the sand and realize that if you continue to raise employment costs and make it harder for small employers to hire young people, the only thing that will happen is you will hire fewer young people.
Starmer calls for sticking to manifesto after reports scrapping youth minimum wage could be delayed
Good morning. Figures released yesterday showed the unemployment rate for 18-24 year olds was 14% in the three months to December; This is the highest rate in nearly 11 years, excluding Covid. The Times is published this morning a story He said ministers were “considering abandoning Labour’s manifesto commitment to pay young people the same national minimum wage as older workers” in response to concerns about youth unemployment.
The Times says:
Business groups told ministers they were “pushing a generation of young people out of the workplace” by increasing the cost of employing workers through increases in the national living wage, wider employment rights and a tax raid on employers’ national insurance.
In response, ministers are reviewing promises to equalize national minimum wage rates by the next election. A decision could come within a few months if the government sets its annual mandate for the Low Pay Commission, which makes recommendations on increasing the national living wage.
Currently, workers must be 21 or older to receive wages national living wage – Term used by the government to describe the entire minimum wage. Workers aged 18 to 20 receive a lower wage, officially defined as the national minimum wage, and there is a lower rate for those under 18.
Jo StevensThe Wales secretary appeared on the Today program this morning and said what the Times was describing was not government policy. He said:
There’s an unsourced briefing in the Times this morning, it’s not government policy. Government policy is as stated in our manifesto.
We have had many naysayers over the years about the national minimum wage.
People said in 1998 that this led to mass unemployment, but it didn’t. And every time there is an increase in the national minimum wage, people complain about it.
But the Guardian, like BBCMinisters are said to be considering slowing down the pace at which equalization occurs, while abandoning the target of increasing the youth rate to the full adult rate.
Even that would be controversial. Interviewed on BBC Andy PrendergastGMB’s national executive told the Today program this morning that it would be unacceptable to delay or halt the equalization of minimum wage rates. When asked what GMB would think if something like this happened, he said:
We would be extremely unhappy about this. This is a manifesto promise. This has been our union’s policy for a long time.
Young workers are not less productive. Businesses recruit according to need. They do not employ more young workers than older workers.
And fundamentally I think that’s the wrong prescription for the problem. as Joe [Stevens] He says we have been receiving minimum wage for 27 years. We have been told over and over again that this will lead to unemployment. This never happened. But still these people are listened to again and again and come up with the same prescription for the same problem. And here we hear it.
We may hear from Keir Starmer on this issue later. He will visit Wales this morning and give interviews. He and Welsh first minister Eluned Morgan back plans for a rail investment in Wales this will see seven new stations open.
The only other entry in the diary today is a speech from Robert Jenrick, who was appointed yesterday as Reform UK Treasury spokesman. It will leave at 11 o’clock.
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