Chancellor fails to guarantee youth minimum wage equalisation before next UK election
UK chancellor John Healey declined on Sunday to promise that Labour will equalise the minimum wage for younger workers before the next general election. He said the commitment stands but gave no timeline.
The UK chancellor of the exchequer, John Healey, did not guarantee on Sunday that the Labour government will deliver its manifesto pledge to equalise the minimum wage for younger workers before the next general election. Speaking on the BBC programme Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he said the government remained committed to the goal but did not say when it would be reached. The question matters because the 2024 pledge concerns 18- to 20-year-olds, who are currently paid less than adults.
In last week's budget, the adult minimum wage rose to £13.21 an hour and the rate for under-20s to £11.27. Both bands received the same 3.9% increase, whereas a bigger rise for younger workers would have been needed to move towards equalisation.
Healey: a question of when, not whether
Healey said he would take the issue "one step at a time", citing concerns that a faster rise could worsen youth unemployment. He said there was no question of whether the pledge would be met, only of when and how fast. He added that he wanted to bring business and trade unions along, and described a million young people being left without a route into work as a moral shame.
He also said he was prepared to keep spending cuts planned in the last spending review, some of them above 2% year-on-year, ahead of the next election. Thinktanks including the Institute for Fiscal Studies have criticised deficit-reduction plans that appear to depend on unpopular cuts unlikely to be enacted at a crucial electoral moment.
Separately, chief secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds told GB News the government would not make "crude cuts" to welfare, arguing that costs would simply shift elsewhere in the public sector. She said proposals would be set out in the new year.
