Budget Resolutions

Debate between Suella Braverman and Wera Hobhouse

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Suella Braverman]

The reality is that £100 million is a small amount compared to the enormity of the challenge that we are required to face, as I said to the hon. Gentleman’s colleague, the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Jonathan Davies). Employers are not taking on young people—that is a fact and it is borne out by the statistics. Employers are not taking on apprentices, because it has become too expensive for them. It has become heavily regulated and bureaucratic, and the training requirements are now too rigid.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

Can the right hon. and learned Lady remind us of what her Government did, and what she did when she was in government, to increase apprenticeships?

[Suella Braverman]

The hon. Lady is on a weak point there, because it was the last Conservative Government who started the apprenticeship movement, and apprenticeships peaked at around 600,000 in 2016. I was very pleased to champion apprenticeships in my constituency, and thousands of young people in Fareham and Waterlooville have taken them up, but that number has been halved—we are now at about 300,000 apprentices.

A Reform UK Government would introduce an apprenticeship wage credit. We would pay small and medium-sized enterprises 30% of an apprentice’s salary to help them with the cost of taking on a new person, investing in our future and in young people. I want to live in a country where a young person is able to enjoy opportunities to prosper, work hard and thrive in their life, regardless of where they come from, what their parents did or the kind of school they went to.

I am afraid that this Budget offers precious little to our young people and zero hope to the next generation, and is a real disappointment for our young people, who are crying out for hope and opportunity. That is why I will be voting against it tonight.