Britain is on the road to ruin. The Chancellor has now made sure of it.
Rachel Reeves is destroying young people’s employment prospects (Image: Getty)
Growth has stalled, debt is rising, households feel poorer and people are getting angrier. Welfare spending is spiralling and so is the national debt. Taxes are at a record high, and set to rise again when chancellor Rachel Reeves unveils her second Budget on November 26.
Yet she’s still on course to borrow another £150billion this year, with around two-thirds going on servicing the interest on our debt.
Labour hasn’t got the answer to our problems. If the Budget lands badly, which is highly likely, it might even trigger a bond market revolt, a run on the pound and embarrassing visit to the IMF.
Keir Starmer’s poll ratings are collapsing, just like former Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak’s did before him. And for the same underlying reason. One people almost never talk about.
Behind today’s crises lurks a deeper problem that makes all of them harder to fix. And Rachel Reeves has just made them worse. Much worse.
Demographics is destiny, they say. If so, we’re in deep trouble. Britain, like the rest of the West, is ageing fast while having fewer children.
In 2024, the UK’s fertility rate fell to just 1.41 children per woman, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. That leaves a shrinking pool of workers trying to support a swelling number of older people. It’s happening everywhere, even China. And no government has found the solution. Labour isn’t even trying.
The state pension isn’t funded by some mythical pot. Disastrously, today’s retirees are paid out of today’s taxes, which piles the burden on younger workers.
Medical advances mean more of us reach our 80s and 90s, but unhealthy lifestyles see millions fall onto benefits in their 50s or early 60s, adding still more pressure.
We urgently need young people working to work, thrive and contribute. Yet we now face a disastrous “unemployment epidemic”, with a record 1.1million under-30s on jobless benefits. And Reeves must take a huge share of the blame.
In last year’s Budget, she hiked employers’ national insurance by £25billion. In response, firms laid off workers, slashed hiring or simply went bust.
At least 175,000 jobs have already disappeared, with another 100,000 jobs at risk in retail alone.
Reeves compounded the damage by lifting the minimum wage by an inflation-busting 6.7%. Employers faced a double hit, and it’s younger workers who’ve paid the price.
The upcoming Budget is spooking bosses too.
The Chancellor’s timing couldn’t have been worse, with artificial intelligence sweeping away whole categories of entry-level jobs.
At the same time, mental health problems are keeping young people at home.
Employers worry about Gen Z’s work ethic and are wary of hiring them. Incredibly, Labour has chosen this moment to make them even more nervous. Its upcoming Employment Rights Bill will grant full legal rights to new staff from day one. If they never get out of bed, businesses still have to pay them.
The result: companies won’t recruit workers with a hint of prior mental health problems.
Britain desperately needs its younger generation in work. Instead, Reeves has locked them out of the jobs market at a pivotal time. It will only accelerate the doom-loop that Labour has trapped us in.
The workforce is being squeezed at both ends. We will all pay for this, and far sooner than we think.
