At least 250,000 jobs lost since Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget, data shows

Unemployment at highest level in nearly four years, with increase blamed on chancellor's hike to businesses' NICs

• Reeves will hope weaker wage growth allows more interest rate cuts

More than a quarter of a million jobs have been lost in Britain since Rachel Reeves's autumn budget, official figures show, fuelling a rise in unemployment to the highest level in almost four years.

In a blow for the chancellor on the eve of Wednesday's highly awaited spending review, the figures from HMRC show the number of workers on company payrolls fell by 109,000 in May - the largest monthly fall since the same period in 2020 during the first Covid lockdown.