Healey signals minimum wage equalisation for younger workers may slip past next election

Chancellor John Healey has suggested that younger workers might not receive the same minimum wage as older workers before the next election, potentially breaking a Labour manifesto commitment made in 2024 to remove what the party called discriminatory age bands. At that time, Labour vowed to end the gap between the adult minimum wage and pay for 18 to 20-year-olds. But in last week's Budget, Healey said younger workers would receive the same increase as older workers, leaving the gap between the two rates in place this year. From 2026, pay for 18 to 20-year-olds will rise to £11.27 an hour, while over-20s will be guaranteed a minimum of £13.21. In a BBC interview broadcast on Sunday, Healey was asked whether younger workers would be paid the same minimum wage as older workers by the time of the next election. "We'll take one step at a time," he said, indicating that Labour might abandon its plan to close the gap before voters next go to the polls. The chancellor insisted the party remained committed to the ambition but hinted that equalisation could be delayed, partly to encourage businesses to employ younger workers. "There is no question about whether or if, it's a question of when - it's a question of how fast," he said. "I want to make sure we can look hard at those trade-offs that are there between jobs and wages." Healey said he wanted to bring business and trade unions along with the government on the issue. "Together we have to get into what at the moment is a moral shame on this nation. A million youngsters - written off without any prospect of being helped into work and making contributions to this country for the future," he said. The change is likely to anger unions and some on the left of the party, who had viewed the pledge as a signature commitment on workplace fairness. The interview also touched on public spending. Healey suggested he was willing to make potentially significant cuts to some areas of government spending to get the country's debt falling, with Budget documents spelling out real-terms reductions to some departments in the years ahead. The Institute for Fiscal Studies this week questioned whether the government would follow through on those plans. Asked if he would make big cuts, Healey said: "We've already demonstrated we are prepared to take hard decisions about the priorities in government." Pressed on whether cuts of more than 2% a year could fall on some departments, he added: "We will carry that through to the 10-year plan and the spending review next year," noting that work was under way to prepare for those spending review decisions. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, speaking on the same programme, said the "bulk" of spending cuts should come from the welfare budget, which she described as containing "astronomical sums". She also proposed reducing the size of the civil service and trimming budgets at departments such as the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. On whether she would back the cuts pencilled in by the government, Badenoch said: "What exactly are they cutting? I'm not against what they're doing but there's no detail." Badenoch said she did not want to see frontline services cut but argued there was a need to "bring down the cost of government". Reflecting on the Budget, she said the chancellor had put forward 98 different measures, many of them piecemeal, none of which would make a difference. "Living within our means, absolutely, we've got to do that. That will require cuts to government, but we are setting out the things very clearly that we're going to change, the bulk of which is in welfare. Other departments will have changes too."