Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds hinted over the weekend on Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that a rise could be on the cards, stressing that during the election campaign Labour only committed to keeping the current rate of national insurance on ‘working people’ and it was a ‘reference to employees’.

Currently employers pay national insurance at 13.8%, a rate unchanged for six years. Employers paid £107.9bn in 2023-24, up an eye-watering 35% from £79.1bn pre-pandemic.

The last increase in employer NICs was in April 2018, when then Chancellor Philip Hammond hiked the rate by 1.8% to 12%.