Healey will not commit to equal youth minimum wage before next election

Minimum wage pledge left open

Chancellor John Healey declined to say whether Labour will meet its 2024 manifesto pledge to close the pay gap for workers aged 18 to 20 before the next general election. Speaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme on Sunday, 1 November, he said the government would "take it one step at a time". The first Budget, delivered on Wednesday, 28 October, raised the adult rate from £12.71 to £13.21 an hour and the 18 to 20 rate from £10.85 to £11.27, a blanket 3.9% increase that takes effect in April 2027.

21 and over, current12.71

21 and over, from April 202713.21

18 to 20, current10.85

18 to 20, from April 202711.27

21 and over, current

12.71 £ per hour

21 and over, from April 2027

13.21 £ per hour

18 to 20, current

10.85 £ per hour

18 to 20, from April 2027

11.27 £ per hour

Data from the article text

Healey said he had accepted the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission. He argued that trade-offs between jobs and wages had to be weighed, pointing to his own experience as a new MP who legislated for the national minimum wage when it was introduced in 1998. He also said he wanted business and trade unions to take part in deciding the pace of change, describing the million young people he said had been written off as a moral shame on the country.

“There's no question about whether or if. It's a question of when.”

Emma Reynolds, the Chief Treasury Secretary, was questioned by LBC's Ben Kentish on Sunday, 1 November. She said the government had already cut the gap between the two rates by a third since the election, and she repeated that progress would depend on economic conditions. Bloomberg reported that Healey declined to restate the commitment to bring youth minimum wages in line during this Parliament.

“As the Chancellor said, we will do this in a careful way and we'll do it step by step.”

Welfare bill and savings timing

Healey insisted that the overall benefits bill would come down under Labour. He said the government would start the changes next year and that the rate of increase in the benefits bill had already slowed since the election.

“The overall bill will come down under Labour.”

Reports that he had set out cuts starting before July 2029 led Downing Street to issue a statement denying the reading, which it called an incorrect interpretation of his reply. On Sunday, 1 November, Healey said such interpretations were "simply wrong" and that he had "never set out the timetable for savings". The Office for Budget Responsibility warned that sickness and disability benefits could cost £100 billion-a-year before the end of the decade. Healey pushed major changes to welfare back to 2027 and said the government would wait for two reviews: one by social security minister Sir Stephen Timms into the personal independence payment, and one by former health secretary Alan Milburn into young people and work.

Opposition and Budget measures

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told Kuenssberg the Budget contained many "piecemeal" measures and that most of the savings needed to come from welfare. The Conservatives accused Labour of being "addicted to welfare". On reparations for the transatlantic slave trade, Healey said he was "open" to the UK formally apologising, while Badenoch said the country had already apologised.

Healey said the government had to do more on defence, warning that threats were rising. He also said spending cuts, some of them more than 2% a year, planned before the next election would be carried through to the 10-year plan and the spending review next year. The Institute for Fiscal Studies had questioned whether departmental cuts of that kind would be enacted at a politically sensitive moment.

The Budget, which the government described as a breathing space, included a £100 energy support payment, an extension of the fuel duty freeze and the removal of standing charges on gas bills. Tax thresholds remain frozen, and the Budget left the gap between the youth and adult minimum wage in place for now.