I want to begin by reflecting on the proposed National Insurance increases on employers.

I fully agreed with the Chancellor when as the Shadow Chancellor, she said that a rise in national insurance will “make each new recruit more expense and increase the costs to business.”

She went on to say that National Insurance contributions from employers and workers “takes money out of people’s pockets”.

However, like a growing number of commitments from Labour politicians , that position seems to be changing dramatically now they are in power. Rachel Reeves looks set to increase national insurance contributions for employers.

This is most definitely a manifesto breach, and it is not just Conservatives politicians who are saying this.

Independent stakeholders such as the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies as well as the Federation of Small Businesses have pointed out that this is a clear breach.

Labour’s manifesto says “Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher or additional rates of Income Tax or VAT.”

Nowhere does it say that it will increase National Insurance contributions for employers and any claim that it doesn’t promise not to is just disingenuous and a slight of hand.

Currently in Wales, we have the highest unemployment rate in the United Kingdom, and any decision to make recruiting more workers more expensive will do nothing but make it more difficult to bring those numbers down.

The overwhelming number of businesses in Wales are small and medium sized businesses, for whom profit margins are tight. This increase in tax burden will do nothing to help them grow, indeed the opposite.

If the Labour party are serious about economic growth, then they must be supporting small businesses, not levying higher taxes which will inevitably end up stifling growth and reducing employment.

Labour Ministers in Cardiff Bay must stand up for our SMEs and call on their colleagues in Westminster to row back from this blatant breach of a manifesto commitment in the budget next week and protect our small business community here in Wales.