Employers

John Slinger Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

I will make some progress, as I have taken a few interventions. Maybe I will address the hon. Gentleman’s point in a moment.

After taking office, we had to take decisions on tax, welfare and spending to fix the public finances and repair our broken public services. It was to restore stability in the public finances and to get our NHS and other essential services back on their feet that we increased national insurance contributions from employers. In making that change, we also more than doubled the employment allowance from £5,000 to £10,500 so that around 900,000 employers—around 40% of employers—have no employer national insurance liability at all.

As I mentioned earlier in response to the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire), we maintained reliefs for those employing younger workers, with businesses able to claim employer national insurance contribution reliefs, including for those aged under 21 and apprentices under the age of 25. That means that employers pay no employer national insurance contributions for employees under the age of 21 or apprentices under the age of 25 on earnings up to £50,270, which saves up to £6,750 a year for each eligible employee.

We know that the decision to increase employer national insurance contributions had an impact on businesses, but we recognise that because of that choice and others, we have been able to put the NHS back on its feet, with waiting lists down by more than 250,000 since the Government came into power. As well as getting the NHS back on its feet, our fiscal rules and the discipline of meeting them mean that we are boosting investment in Britain’s future—the investment that families and businesses want and need. Across this Parliament, we will invest an additional £120 billion in Britain’s roads, rail, energy and other infrastructure, which is so important for driving growth, and last year we delivered the highest number of affordable homes in a decade.

[John Slinger (Rugby) (Lab)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that this Government’s investment in our infrastructure and our NHS, which is significantly higher than the risible amount of investment delivered under the previous Government, is pro-business and pro-economic growth, and that that is why the Budget measures will help our country and help businesses across this land?

[James Murray]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that businesses want to make sure that the population—their employees or future employees—are healthy, are able to get to work and are able to access the support they need to get a job. That is as important for businesses as it is for the people themselves, and of course businesses want to see the investment in infrastructure that our adherence to our fiscal rules enables. That investment in rail, road and energy is so important to businesses, as it is to families across the country.

In their motion, the Conservatives propose halving employer national insurance contributions for under-25s. Apart from a brief mention in the shadow Secretary of State’s speech, they appear to have forgotten that employers already pay no employer national insurance on any earnings up to £50,270 for every employee under 21, and for all apprentices under 25. However, the bigger problem—one that goes to the very heart of why the Conservatives failed in government and why it is clear that they have learned nothing—is that they are very good at announcing tax cuts, yet always entirely fail to credibly say how they would pay for them. If they want a reduction in employer national insurance, what is the cost? Where does the money come from? Is it from higher borrowing, higher taxes on someone else or cuts to the NHS and other public services that working people rely on?

Just look at the Conservatives’ announcements on tax more widely. They have promised billions of pounds-worth of unfunded and poorly targeted tax cuts for the very wealthiest—exactly the same irresponsibility that led to the disastrous Liz Truss mini-Budget that crashed the economy and sent mortgages skyrocketing. That is the difference between us as a responsible Government and them as a discredited Opposition.