Tories plan NI break to save jobs

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Tory leader David Cameron said that the £2.5 billion scheme would pay for itself by reducing the future cost of unemployment.

He urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to adopt the plan immediately, in order to prevent the numbers out of work from soaring further from its current level of 1.79 million.

His initiative comes amid widespread expectation of tax cuts in Chancellor Alistair Darling's upcoming Pre-Budget Report. Mr Brown is certain to be quizzed on the growing tax-cut war between the three main parties when he faces the media at his regular monthly press conference.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is also expected to set out details of his party's plans to reduce taxes on the less well-off by closing loopholes for the wealthy.

Mr Cameron told BBC1's Breakfast: "We have got 1.8 million people unemployed in Britain today. Tragically that is going to go up again tomorrow, and as we go into recession it is going to get worse.

"We are saying, instead of spending the money on unemployment benefit, take the money from unemployment benefit and spend it on giving companies a tax break to take people off the unemployment register.

"As you go into recession, you have got a choice: either you stand back, do nothing, let unemployment rise and let that unemployment benefit be spent, or in advance use that money to get companies to take on workers."

Mr Cameron said that the Government's own calculations suggest that every person who goes onto the unemployment register costs the taxpayer £8,000 a year.

"We are saying take one-third of that money - £2,500 - and if a company takes on somebody who has been unemployed for three months, they get that £2,500 knocked off their National Insurance bill. That helps companies to hire people."