A real Bank of England Economist confirms Labour policies are destroying young peoples opportunities
The BoE has again exposed that Labour’s employment policies have driven youth unemployment to its highest level in a decade and the highest in Europe.
In the 2024 budget, Labour raised the minimum wage and increased employer’s National Insurance contributions. The pitch was straightforward; the so called BoE economist Reeves (which we found out was a lie) said workers deserve more, businesses and greedy business owners should pay more, and young people would benefit most.
The outcome has and was always going to be the opposite, and even my own kids know that first hand loosing their jobs and their employers closing down due to increased business costs.
Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill told Parliament that Labour policy changes have hit 16 to 21 year olds particularly hard. Youth unemployment for 16 to 24 year olds reached 16.1 percent in the final quarter of 2025, exceeding the EU average of 14.9 percent for the first time in recorded history since the turn of the millennium and that the UK also has worse youth unemployment than the EU average.
Sectors like hospitality, retail, and leisure, traditional entry points for first jobs, have been hammered. Businesses face sharply higher costs for hiring young staff and are choosing not to replace leavers or expand. The result is fewer rungs on the employment ladder for the next generation.
The Real Cost Beyond Numbers
This is not abstract economics. Young people are losing more than pay packets. They miss out on essential life skills; turning up on time, dealing with customers and colleagues, managing time under pressure, and building a CV with real experience. These formative jobs teach workplace realities that no classroom can replicate.
Weak demand in professional and tech roles, lingering hybrid working effects, and the AI revolution add pressure, but Labour’s tax and wage policies have made the problem acute for those starting out.
We all know this is causing horrific damage and how these rises make hiring young people far more expensive and risky, with some analyses showing added costs of thousands per worker. Even the Low Pay Commission has noted the labour market challenges for under-21s.
London, once an economic magnet, a mecca for jobs and prosperity, now has the highest regional unemployment rate at 7.6 percent, with youth figures even worse in some reports.
Challenging the Left’s Dreamland Approach
Labour’s interventionist mindset assumes government can simply mandate higher pay without consequences. Economic reality disagrees. When the price of labour rises artificially, especially for inexperienced young workers, demand falls. Small businesses, the lifeblood of new jobs, feel it hardest. This is predictable supply and demand, not ideology.
The irony is outstanding. A government claiming to champion the working class and youth has delivered higher joblessness for exactly those groups through policies that everyone who ran a business could and did say. Britain once prided itself on labour market flexibility post-Brexit. That advantage is slipping away under these policies.
Youth unemployment now tops the EU average for the first time in modern records.
Entry level sectors are contracting rather than growing.
Long term scars from missed early experience will affect career trajectories for years.
We Need A Serious Pro Business Agenda
Britain needs pro-growth, pro-work policies that encourage hiring and reward ambition, not punitive taxes and wage floors that price young people out of jobs. Restore Britain offers the necessary reset. Their focus on reversing mass immigration would ease pressure on housing, services, and the labour market, allowing wages to rise naturally through tighter supply rather than mandates. Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain repeatedly highlight the need to put British workers first, cut wasteful spending, and restore economic sanity so that businesses can hire and young people can thrive.
Only by rejecting big-state meddling and prioritising British citizens can we rebuild opportunities for the next generation and secure a stronger economy. Restore Britain’s approach points the way out of this mess.