Tory ‘battle on employees’ as Kemi Badenoch says minimal wage should not go any increased
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s comments come just weeks after Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed pay hikes for around 2.6million workers at her Budget from April 2026
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has been accused of declaring “war on workers” after saying the minimum wage for millions of low-paid employees should not go any higher.
It comes just weeks after Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed pay hikes for around 2.6million workers at her Budget from April 2026. From next year the government’s National Living Wage will increase to £12.71 per hour for workers over 21-years-old.
This is an estimated hike of around £900-per-year for the lowest paid. The National Minimum Wage for 18 to 20-year-olds will also increase by 8.5% to £10.85 per hour. Seaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Ms Badenoch said she had increased the minimum wage in government but raised concerns over firms letting staff go.
Pressed on whether the minimum wage is currently at the right level, the Tory chief said that the government had set it at the rate the Low Pay Commission had said, but businesses needed to be consulted.
She said: “I don’t think that we should be raising it any more for example, we’ve seen that too many businesses can’t pay for it. You can make the minimum wage £1,000 per hour, if businesses can’t pay it none of us are going to have a job.”
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Asked if the rates were too high now, she said: “When I was Business Secretary I raised the minimum wage and a lot of businesses told me that yes, you’ve raised it but we can’t afford it and we’ve got to let go of staff.” Ms Badenoch added: “We need to listen to what businesses are saying. It’s not government ministers that create jobs, it’s business that creates jobs.
“We need to make sure that we set the minimum wage at a good level but we also need to make sure that their other burdens, their business rates, their corporation taxes, all of the things they do – the endless regulation, the employment rights bill: they’re just sick and tired of so much happening. Let’s lighten that burden.”
Labour’s employment rights minister, Kate Dearden, responded: “The Tories have declared war on workers.” She added: “Kemi Badenoch already described maternity pay as ‘excessive’ and her cruel plans to slash employment rights would mean a return of fire-and-rehire and quashed wages for workers.
“Family finances are still reeling from the Tories’ economic failure which saw sky-high interest rates, rocketing energy costs, and higher prices. The Conservatives haven’t changed and can’t be trusted.
“This Labour Government is on the side of working people. We’re bringing in the biggest uplift to workers’ rights in a generation, we’ve boosted pay for millions of the lowest earners, and we’re cutting energy bills – putting money back in people’s pockets.”
