Laura Kuenssberg: Healey risks breaking minimum wage promise for younger workers

This video can not be played "One step at a time," says Healey on ending the minimum wage gap between older and younger workers The Chancellor, John Healey, has suggested that younger workers might not receive the same minimum wage as others before the next election, potentially breaking a Labour manifesto promise. In 2024, Labour said it would remove "discriminatory age bands", vowing to end the gap between the adult minimum wage and pay for 18 to 20-year-olds. But in last week's Budget, Healey said that younger workers would same increase as older workers, leaving a gap between the two rates this year. Pay for 18 to 20-year-olds in 2026 will rise to £11.27, while over-20s will be paid a minimum of £13.21 an hour. In a BBC interview broadcast on Sunday, Healey was asked if younger workers would be paid the same as older workers, when it comes to the minimum wage, ? "We'll take one step at a time," he said, suggesting that Labour might abandon its plan to close the gap before the next election. It is a change that is likely to anger the unions and some on the left of the party. A million youngsters - written off without any prospect of being helped into work and making contributions to this country for the future." The chancellor also suggested that he is willing to make potentially big cuts to some areas of public spending, to get the country's debt falling. The budget documents spell out real-terms reductions to some government departments in the years to come. The likelihood of the government following through was questioned , the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) this week. She also proposed reducing the size of the civil service and reducing budgets in departments such as the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. On whether she would support cuts pencilled in , Badenoch told the same programme: "What exactly are they cutting? I'm not against what they're doing but there's no detail." Badenoch said she did not want to see cuts in frontline services but said there was a need to "bring down the cost of government". Reflecting on the Budget, she said: "The chancellor had 98 different measures, a lot of them very piecemeal, none will make a difference. "So living within our means, absolutely, we've got to do that. That will require cuts to government, but we are setting out the things very clearly that we're going to change, the bulk of which is in welfare.