Member

This is our new deal for new times, offering new hope to the young people who are so often disparaged by the Conservatives as shirkers and scroungers. Our message is different: ‘We back you, we believe in you and we want you to succeed’. The package that I have announced is new investment of about £1 billion, and it comes on top of the funding that we announced at the Budget. Taken together, it is a package of support for young people worth about £2.5 billion. The existing exemption from employer national insurance contributions for workers under 21 will stay in place. This package is not just pro young people; it is pro-business. I welcome the comments by the Federation of Small Businesses, which said that the provision is a ‘game-changer’ and ‘a decisive step forward’, and rightly describes the package as ‘pro-jobs, pro-opportunities’. The package has also been welcomed by large employers such as Amazon, Kier Group and PwC, and the welcome goes beyond business. We know that a lot of young people face challenges in the labour market, and the chief executive of Mental Health UK, Brian Dow, said that the package