Britain is facing a critical productivity crisis. Businesses are threatened and the economy is shrinking.

Recent data show the UK has suffered the fastest slump in new hiring across Europe.

Employers are pulling back on recruitment, and it’s obvious what the cause is.

The Government’s autumn Budget imposed a record £40 billion in new taxes on employers, draining confidence and making it less appealing to hire new staff and deterring growth.

Jacob Rees-Mogg says the lack of productivity is hindering Britain

Before last year, 41 per cent of bosses were planning to hire more staff.

Today, that optimism has evaporated like the dew off the petal of a rose.

The gap between hiring intentions and plans to cut jobs has shrunk to just 11 points, a 17-point drop in a single year.

Meanwhile, workers’ sick days have surged to the highest level in more than 15 years.

Jacob urged Sir Keir to solve Britain's productivity crisis

In just 12 months, employees have taken on average nearly two full working weeks off, an increase from just over a week since before the pandemic.

Stress alone is now cited by over 40 per cent of workplaces as a core factor behind absences.

And yet there seems to be no urgency from the government.

Instead of incentivising hiring, or easing the burden on employers, taxes on businesses are going up, and Britain’s productivity remains weak.

The productivity crisis is not being helped by a steady increase in the powers of trade unions to withdraw services.

The Government’s Employment Rights Bill is in its final stages in Parliament; legislation that will only encourage Labour’s Union paymasters to strike and hold the economy to ransom, as we see this week with the Tube walkouts.

But Sir Keir Starmer now has the means to prevent this.

The Bill, pushed by the hard left of the Labour Party, could be stopped.

Angela Rayner and Justin Madders in particular were the Praetorian Guard of this awful legislation, and their departure gives Keir Starmer an opportunity to abandon the legislation and get Britain back to work.

But, the Prime Minister lacks the courage or power to do so.

He thought he had purged the Corbynistas, but now he has seen several of his MPs move to the hard left, abandoning his agenda, as his unpopularity in the nation prevents him from taking any bold decisions that may upset certain factions of his party.

This strikers' rights bill will increase strike action, make walkouts easier, increase bureaucracy, and make people unsackable.

It’s time the Government got serious about solving Britain’s productivity crisis. We need workers to get back to work, and businesses to be able to do business, or we will continue to fall behind in the world, and ultimately fail as a nation.