With youth unemployment at a record high, we are failing the next generation

In Parliament, I highlighted the escalating crisis of youth unemployment, now approaching one million. It is at its highest level in a decade, above the EU average, and has become a distinctly British problem that has worsened under this Government.

I made clear that this situation is not down to any single cause, but a build-up of pressures, many of which are within the Government’s control. Businesses are increasingly citing the hikes in national insurance and business rates as reasons it has become harder to hire young people. The Government may try to defend each policy in isolation, but when multiple costs are piled onto businesses at the same time, there comes a point where employers simply pull back.

I also argued that economics is not just a matter of accounting. You cannot keep shifting figures on a spreadsheet without consequences in the real economy. If businesses face multiple tax rises at once, and their response is to cut hours, cut jobs, or even close, then the expected tax revenue never arrives.

That is why business confidence is so low, growth is flatlining, and youth unemployment has surged. And with this issue not addressed in the Spring Statement, I asked the Leader of the House to organise for a Treasury Minister to come to the House and make a statement on youth employment, so that Parliament can properly scrutinise the Government’s plan and hold it to account.