Rachel Reeves rails against national insurance rise in 2021
Rachel Reeves is under fire for a major u-turn this morning, after it emerged she personally lambasted plans to increase National Insurance in 2021 as a “jobs tax”.
Amid efforts to fund new social care funding three years ago, Rishi Sunak moved to increase national insurance contributions, including those by employers.
In the House of Commons, Ms Reeves tore into Tory plans, warning that the over manifesto pledge break – something Labour would also be committing if it pursued a NICs rise in her Budget – would be going against the “strong advice of businesses and trade unions”.
She said that rises to employers’ national insurance will “make each new recruit more expensive and increase the costs to business”.
Ms Reeves added: “The decision to saddle employers and workers with the jobs tax takes money out of people’s pockets when our economic recovery is not yet established or secure and only adds to the pressure on businesses after a …