A NEWLY elected SNP MP has called on Andy Burnham to scrap Labour’s “short-sighted” hike to employers’ National Insurance contributions (NICs) amid growing unemployment rates.

In April 2025, Chancellor Rachel Reeves increased employers’ NICs from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent as well as lowering the threshold at which they paid it from £9,100 to £5,000, now Lara Bird has pointed to new research to argue the policy is “choking off” economic growth in Scotland.

The House of Commons Library analysis commissioned by the SNP shows that unemployment has risen from 1.48 million when Labour came to power two years ago, to 1.76 million at the most recent count in April.

Ms Bird, who was elected as Arbroath and Broughty Ferry MP on the same night as Andy Burnham secured his return to Westminster, said: “Andy Burnham must urgently think again and scrap the Labour Party’s national insurance tax hike, which has destroyed jobs and been a disaster for small and medium-sized businesses.

“This was an incredibly short-sighted Labour government policy, which has created a high-cost, toxic environment for businesses across Scotland and the UK — cutting jobs, squeezing wages, reducing investment and choking off economic growth.

“I want businesses across Scotland to thrive but damaging UK government policies, including the National Insurance tax hike and Brexit, are holding them back and costing Scotland billions.”

The research emphasised the challenge faced by young people getting a foothold in employment, with vacancies falling from 867,000 to 707,000 between July 2024 and April 2026 as the number of unemployed 16-24-year-olds grew by 116,000 — from 618,000 to 735,000.

Arguing the employers’ NIC hike had been a “hammer blow” to business, “adding billions of pounds in extra costs, preventing growth and reducing vacancies,” she added: “The UK jobs market has significantly weakened under the Labour government — and the UK now faces a growing unemployment crisis as a result of damaging Labour Party policies. 

“All the evidence suggests it will get worse not better unless something urgently changes.

“Under the Labour Party, UK unemployment has reached the highest levels since the Covid pandemic and young people have been disproportionately hit, with youth unemployment at its highest levels in over a decade, damaging their life chances.”

The UK government was contacted for comment.