Prime Minister Keir Starmer was dealt a brutal blow on GB News, as presenters Stephen Dixon and Oliva Utley were joined by Conservative shadow defence minister, David Reed. The MP slammed the current government for its recent decision to raise business taxes following a bombshell review that revealed the true and costly scale of youth unemployment. The MP fumed: “I think this is absolute madness, just looking at Labour’s economics, this is socialism 101.”

This comes after official figures found that youth unemployment was costing Britain more than £125bn a year. The review authored by former Labour MP Alan Milburn revealed that the number of young people not working or studying had surpassed a million for the first time in more than a decade. Speculating on the reason, Mr Reed claimed: “They put all these new taxes on business.”

He listed: “Employers’ national insurance, increases in the minimum wage, business rate increases, and then you compound those with high energy costs and throw in a bunch of new legislation around employee rights, and you realise why businesses are closing.

“Or not able to take on young people and in the same breath you’re saying ‘we’re going to gove tax-payer funded grants out for businesses to be able to take on young people.’”

In his scathing verdict, Mr Reed blasted Labour’s decisions: “It’s absolute madness.”

“If we look at the chunk of people that are outside work, in that category … for some of the issues around non-debilitating anxiety or ADHD, we need to have a conversation around personal independence payments.”

The GB News guest noted: “The Conservatives, under Kemi (Badenoch), have been very strong to say, ’we need to do a rapid reassessment of those PIP claims to make sure those who can work, go to work.”

The politician added: “I think there’s a strong argument to say that the fulfilment you get from work, to have the agency to have money coming in to your own bank account and to be able to control those decisions is far better than being written off, put on the benefits train, and the lose all your confidence because you’re not in work and then staying on benefits for long periods of time.”

Alan Milburn said the government had a responsibility to the next generation to take action.

Launching his bombshell review of Britain’s youth jobs crisis, he said Starmer’s government had shown a renewed desire to overhaul the benefits system as part of changes to tackle soaring youth unemployment and inactivity.

“As I’ve spoken to cabinet ministers about it, my sense is that there is an appetite to go back into this, and to go back into it in the right way,” he said

The Prime Minister addressed the “sobering” findings in Milburn’s report and insisted Labour was taking action by ploughing money into a “youth guarantee” and funding more work experience and job placements.

During a visit to a training facility for apprentices in west London on Thursday (May 28), Starmer acknowledged further steps were required and admitted: “Clearly we need to do more.”