Major retailers pledge jobs for young Britons under Labour youth employment scheme

Tesco, John Lewis, Greggs and Marks & Spencer are among the chains signed up to a government-backed scheme to hire young people struggling to find work. GB News and the Mirror report the target is in the tens of thousands of new roles.

The scheme arrives as the Express reports that one of the country's largest taxpayers has left Britain, described as a blow to John Healey's growth promises. The Guardian's John Crace dismissed Healey's recent presentation as painful and boring. The Express also carries that Healey made a comment that will terrify pensioners, though the substance is not detailed in the captured headlines.

The youth employment push is a recurring shape: retailers with high turnover in entry-level roles, a government keen to show it is moving the dial on opportunity, and a target large enough to sound material. The question is always retention and progression, not the initial pledge. A young person hired and gone in three months does not resolve the structural problem, which is that the entry wage often does not cover rent and the next rung up is years away.

What to watch: whether the scheme publishes retention figures past six months, and whether Healey's growth strategy produces the revenue that pays for it or whether the tax base continues to narrow as high earners leave. The gap between the pledge and the retention rate will tell you if this is a fix or a headline.