National insurance rise forces UK employers to shoulder £9bn tax burden

Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, said the figures showed the government was not on the side of employers. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Britain’s employers are being forced to shoulder a £9bn tax rise after the government pushed ahead with raising national insurance on Wednesday despite stiff opposition.

Company bosses said the 1.25-percentage-point rise in national insurance contributions (NICs), which is paid by workers and their employers, would add to already severe pressure from runaway inflation and soaring business costs this year linked to Covid, Brexit and Russia’s war in Ukraine.