National Minimum Wage Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

National Minimum Wage

Jim Cunningham Excerpts
Wednesday 15th January 2014

(10 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Rachel Reeves Portrait Rachel Reeves
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I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. Trade unions, including the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians, of which he is a member, did a huge amount of campaigning for the introduction of the minimum wage and campaign today to ensure that more people are paid a living wage. I will say a little more about what we are willing do in government to ensure that more people are paid a living wage above the national minimum.

Jim Cunningham Portrait Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)
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The freeze in council tax, which was mentioned earlier, looks good on the surface, but councils are not being compensated for it, and they are stacking up a problem for two or three years down the road, when there will be massive cuts to services.

Rachel Reeves Portrait Rachel Reeves
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Many councils, including mine in Leeds and his in Coventry, have been hard hit by the cuts to the local authority grant, which are affecting some of the services that the most vulnerable people rely on.