Britain is becoming a welfare nation as jobs vanish - and one man is to blame

Britain's jobs market is facing Armageddon under Labour. The ONS has confirmed unemployment has risen for the twelfth month in a row under Labour, now hitting 4.8 per cent, the highest since the pandemic. The decline is being felt across the country, with 100,000 fewer on payroll than a year ago. Vacancies have dried up and hiring costs have surged. Young people are bearing the brunt, as sectors like hospitality shed jobs, whilst wage growth in the private sector slowed to its weakest in nearly four years.

A picture of steady decay, promise and potential slipping through the cracks. Labour inherited one of Europe's strongest labour markets and, in little more than a year, turned it into a wasteland of lost confidence and wasted talent. The Government's own policies have caused this. Labour's Jobs Tax and Employment Rights Bill have hiked the cost of hiring by £1,000, a direct hit to small businesses already on the brink.

And at the centre of it all is Keir Starmer, a man with no backbone. Every time Labour face a difficult choice, they buckle. Rather than helping people into work, they are making it harder for employers to hire and harder for young people to get their first step on the ladder. Every Labour government ends the same way, with higher taxes, higher unemployment, and a deeper black hole in the public finances.

Only the Conservatives have the plan for a strong economy that can serve the next generation by restoring opportunity and rebuilding confidence. We will free business to create jobs, drive growth, and deliver a strong economy built on work, not welfare. Through our First Jobs Bonus, the first £5,000 of National Insurance paid by any British citizen starting their first job will be placed into a personal savings account. This will be money earmarked for a first home deposit or future savings.

And we will go further. We have a plan to reduce red tape, improve HMRC, expand business coaching in schools, and scrap Labour's job-destroying Trade Union Charter - the Employment Rights Bill. Our plan will support entrepreneurs, the greatest engine of job creation, to set up businesses, create jobs, wealth, and opportunity.

Labour tax work and trap ambition. Reform are a one-man band of reckless spending and left-wing economics. Only the Conservatives will back Britain's workers, reward effort, and give the next generation a life of their own.

That is the choice before us - a future built on work, or a future buried under welfare.