Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Rachel Reeves says she wants to abolish youth unemployment – yet in her very first Budget, she introduced a £25 billion Jobs Tax that made it more expensive for businesses to hire, especially young people.
“That’s the contradiction at the heart of Labour’s plan: they talk about opportunity, but their policies kill jobs. Since Labour came to power, unemployment is up. Business confidence is down. And now Reeves is trying to fix a problem she created – while pointing the finger of blame, as she so often does, at everyone else.
“You don’t get more young people into work by punishing the very businesses that hire them. The answer isn’t more taxpayer-funded schemes – it’s growth, lower taxes, and a pro-jobs economy.”
