Employers

Sarah Bool Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Bool (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

Fewer sentences have caused such shock and reaction than when the Chief Secretary to the Treasury said that employers were not working people. I feel so saddened for all those small business owners across my constituency who have worked so unbelievably hard and sacrificed so much to give so many other people the opportunity of work. I think about Magda, who runs the Omorfi Nails and Beauty salon in Towcester. She does not only employ staff; while also bringing up her family, she is studying medical practice so that she can help people with diabetes—a matter close to my heart—through podiatry. It is an insult to say that she is not hard working and a working person. No matter how many examples we give, the Government simply will not listen. I wish they would engage. The voices from all the stories told here today are those of actual people from our constituencies who are living and breathing this. I implore the Government to take this issue seriously.

At the very beginning of the debate, the Minister talked of breathing space. I think the only “Breathing Space” people recognise is the song by the Pet Shop Boys, but I think their version might be slightly more popular than the Chancellor’s. We ask businesses every single day to take risks. The contract must be that if we ask them to take a risk, we give them the confidence to be able to operate their businesses, not the shifting sands constantly coming from this Government and their Budgets. Actions ultimately speak far louder than words, because hope does not pay the bills, hope does not put food on the table and hope does not heat our homes.

As we have identified, the people suffering most are our young people. We have heard many examples of people who are struggling to get opportunities and jobs. One of the pubs in my constituency—I have just run a pub of the year competition—said that it put up an advert for just a couple of hours of work at the weekend for those under 18. It received 200 applications for just one job. There are so many young people who are absolutely desperate to get into the working environment, but they cannot because those businesses cannot give them the opportunity. That is a travesty that has happened on this Government’s watch.

Nearly 1 million young people are NEETs, with 60% of those being economically inactive—not just not in work but not even looking for it. There is a much deeper issue of youth detachment from the market, which hurts young people’s confidence, health and ability to earn an income, and it hurts the taxpayer, because it is incredibly hard for us to give young people opportunities if those jobs do not exist. That is why I welcome the Conservative proposal to halve national insurance contributions for the under-25s to get them into work.

I will flag—as I did in justice questions this week—that the Employment Rights Act has introduced many powers that the Government laud, but with them we are going to start to see an increasing amount of red tape. With that red tape comes an issue with employment tribunals. When people are going through a dispute with an employer, one of the most difficult times of their lives, they are going to discover that there is a huge backlog for tribunals. There are already over 70,000 open single cases. In reducing the time from two years down to six months to bring a tribunal claim, the Act is going to increase the workload and the backlog in the courts by a third. That is madness.

We are slowing down the economy with everything we do. The Employment Rights Act is exactly as the Conservatives describe: it is an unemployment rights Act. It is burdening our businesses and slowing down opportunities, but the Government and the Labour Benches just sit and stare. That is the problem: they are sitting and staring while hard-working people out there are trying to make a living. The Government need to start listening.

My poor farmers were looking to the Budget for a little bit of help and assistance—88% of my constituency is agricultural land—but they are not getting any. Another big issue that we have to focus on are the massive issues in the pig industry. I will save that discussion for another day, but the industry is desperate for some support from the Government. I implore the Government one more time: please, do listen to the Opposition Benches. The Government may not want to on political grounds, but we are literally just voicing the concerns of our constituents. Please listen.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the shadow Minister.