Living Wage
Debate between Ian Lavery and Kwasi Kwarteng(11 years, 10 months ago)
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Kwasi Kwarteng
I support it now, because it is a fact of life. To address the hon. Gentleman’s comment directly, the minimum wage is not set at a level that is damaging to business. It is set at a reasonable level, although I am not saying that it is the best level. I want people to earn more—of course I want them to be more affluent—but the way to achieve greater prosperity is to allow businesses to do well, to flourish and to employ people, and that will not happen as a result of the state demanding a certain level of wages. We have been there: in the ’70s, we had national incomes policy and price policy, but that all failed—it was a complete disaster. It is baffling, in 2013, that we are hearing the same old socialist arguments for Government intervention and control.
I appreciate that many others want to speak, so I will finish on this point.
Ian Lavery
Is it a socialist ideal or policy to support having a decent living wage so that people can put bread on the table for their kids?
Kwasi Kwarteng
I have said this about three times in my speech: everybody wants people to have higher wages—[Interruption.]