National Minimum Wage Introduced
The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 introduced a statutory floor below which wages could not fall. Conservatives predicted mass unemployment. Instead, the minimum wage became one of the most successful labour market interventions in UK history, lifting millions out of poverty without the predicted job losses.
Tony Blair — Labour Party
In power 1997–2007
⚠️ What this enabled
Reform UK has called the minimum wage a "burden on business" and opposes increases Concern
Reform UK's economic platform frames minimum wage legislation as anti-competitive regulation that prices low-skilled workers out of the market. Senior figures have questioned whether the minimum wage should continue to rise and have described it as a constraint on business growth. While they have not yet formally called for abolition, the ideological direction is clear: deregulation of labour markets is a core Reform economic principle.
The minimum wage was introduced in 1999 against fierce Conservative opposition, with Tory peers voting against it in the Lords. The same economic arguments being made by Reform today — that it destroys jobs and harms small business — were made in 1999 and proven wrong by two decades of evidence. Reform represents a return to that pre-1999 ideological position.
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