National Minimum Wage

Ian Mearns Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

Two million jobs were created under the last Labour Government and employment reached a record high, so I am not sure where the hon. Lady gets her statistics from.

I have quoted the former leader of the Liberal Democrats but, back then, where was the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the right hon. Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable)? He was nowhere to be seen in the debates. He was nowhere to be seen on the voting record. On Second Reading and Third Reading, he failed to vote. Apparently, he abstained because he had reservations about a minimum wage. Perhaps he will stand up today to profess his concern for the plight of the low-paid. I am happy to take an intervention from the right hon. Gentleman if he wants to make one.

[Ian Mearns (Gateshead) (Lab)]

Although the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills had reservations about the minimum wage, many of my neighbours who worked in the security industry on 90p or £1 an hour back then are eternally grateful for the Labour Government’s action in introducing the minimum wage. It made a massive difference to their lifestyle.

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, which reminds me of a story that my predecessor as MP for Leeds West told me. He saw a job advert in our constituency for a security guard back in the mid-1990s that said, “Pay, 90p an hour. Uniform provided. Bring your own dog.” Those were the sort of jobs that existed back then, but members of this Government opposed the national minimum wage legislation. I look forward to hearing what the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has to say later, but people will be entitled to ask him where he was when we abolished the scandal of jobs paying less than £1 an hour and when British workers won the right to be paid a decent minimum wage.