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The Government should consider cutting the minimum wage for young people in order to raise “aspiration” and boost business, Nigel Farage has said.
Speaking at a press conference in the City of London, the Reform leader called on the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to either cut the minimum wage for young people or lift the cap at which businesses have to pay their National Insurance contributions.
Asked if the current minimum wage should be cut for young people in order to boost “aspiration”, Farage indicated that he believed it should.
“There’s an argument the minimum wage is too high for younger workers,” Farage said.
“Particularly given that we’ve lowered the level at which NIC is paid to £5,000 a year.”
Urging the Chancellor to “do something” about it, Farage said that she should “do one or the other, either lift the cap at which NI is due, or lower the minimum wage…”
Young people between the ages of 18-20 are currently entitled to earn a legal minimum of £10 an hour.
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While most the rest of the media seems to happy to give the handful of Reform MPs undue prominence, Byline Times is committed to tracking the activities of Nigel Farage’s party when actually in power
Contribute to our #ReformUncovered crowdfunderFarage’s comments came after he criticised proposals to raise taxes on the wealthiest, saying that it was creating a “wealth drain” from the UK, due to them being “scared” of having to pay more tax.
He called for tax cuts for “young professionals” earning more than £100,000 a year, saying that they were leaving the country due to “this hard left socialist dogma that it’s popular to tax the rich”.
“So let me make it clear. I want as many high-earning people as possible living in this country, paying as much tax as they legally have to”, he said.
Farage also unveiled plans to slash public spending and welfare under a Reform Government, saying that disabilities were being “over-diagnosed”.
It comes after one of Reform’s flagship councils was forced to ask its political opponents for help to identify potential savings, after failing to find the tens of millions of pounds in cuts it promised to deliver.
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