Did Kemi Badenoch say she wouldn’t reverse Labour’s National Insurance increase?

At Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday, the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer claimed that the Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch had on Monday “said that she wouldn’t reverse the increase in National Insurance”. 

That doesn’t appear to be quite what Ms Badenoch said, although neither the Labour party nor the Conservatives have responded to our questions about their respective leaders’ comments. 

Mr Starmer appears to have been referring to comments made by Ms Badenoch at the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) conference on Monday 25 November. 

But we’ve not been able to find any evidence from reports at that event that Ms Badenoch said she would reverse the National Insurance increase. 

When asked about the recent rise in employers’ National Insurance (NI) contributions at the event, she said that “where we can see that a change that has been brought in in the Budget will obviously not work and will not raise any money, we will change that”. 

While it could be argued that the increase in NI will raise money, and therefore wouldn’t be changed by the Conservatives, Ms Badenoch didn’t explicitly say this. Some news outlets reported Ms Badenoch’s comments as her refusing to commit to reversing the increase in NI.

She also said on Monday that her party would “look again” at the National Insurance increase because so many organisations had said it was becoming unaffordable.

Ministers should provide evidence for claims they make. They should also ensure they correct false or misleading claims made in Parliament as soon as possible in keeping with the Ministerial Code, which states that they should correct “any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity”.

What did Mr Starmer say? 

At PMQs on Wednesday, Mr Starmer said: “I noticed that, having come here criticising the National Insurance rises over and over again, on Monday she admitted that she wouldn’t reverse the position that was set out.” 

He went on to say: “On Monday she said that she wouldn’t reverse the increase in National Insurance.”

What did Ms Badenoch say on Monday?

After delivering a speech at the CBI conference on Monday, Ms Badenoch was asked directly by a Sky News reporter: “Would a Conservative government under your leadership reverse the chancellor’s decision to raise employers’ National Insurance contributions?”

Ms Badenoch said: “One of the things which I have said is that where we can see that a change that has been brought in in the Budget will obviously not work and will not raise any money, we will change that.”

She went on to say: “We did not have employers’ National Insurance at this rate, so it’s quite clear, certainly if you look at the last Budget and what we did, that we did not think it should be this high. One of the things that we’re going to have to do is rewire everything, so what I’m not going to do is comment on every bit of micropolicy. 

She added: “We believe that employers’ National Insurance, while necessary to help us fund public services, is a tax on jobs. I know this from personal experience. When employers have to pay it, it means that they have less money for higher wages. They may not create new jobs. So we need to make sure that the balance is right.

“The fact that so many organisations … are saying that this is becoming unaffordable means that we should look again, and that’s one of the first things that we’re going to be doing when we start our policy platform.” 

When asked, Ms Badenoch didn’t provide specific examples of which taxes she would cut.

What’s the difference?

Mr Starmer’s comments suggested Ms Badenoch had explicitly said she wouldn’t reverse the increase to employers’ NI. But assuming he was referring to her comments at the CBI conference, this seems to misrepresent what she said. As far as we can tell, based on the excerpts quoted above, she didn’t commit to either reversing or maintaining the increase. 

It’s also worth noting that a press release issued by the Labour party after PMQs did not make the same claim as Mr Starmer about Ms Badenoch’s comments. It said that this week at the CBI conference Ms Badenoch “refused to say that the Tories would reverse employer national insurance contribution changes announced in the Budget” and provided a link to a Sky News article.

We contacted 10 Downing Street to ask what Mr Starmer’s claim was based on, and were referred to the Labour party, which has not responded to our queries. We’ve also asked the Conservatives to confirm what the party’s position is on reversing the increase in employers’ National Insurance. We’ll update this article if we receive replies.