National Minimum Wage

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Grahame Morris

Wednesday 15th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[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.

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

Notwithstanding the Secretary of State’s reservations about the minimum wage, what does my hon. Friend think about the reservations of ordinary working people about the Government’s plan to give 100% bonuses to bankers at the Royal Bank of Scotland? Will that be well received?

[Rachel Reeves]

Many people earning £6.31 an hour will be shocked and outraged to find out that bankers this year will get bonuses worth more than they earn, but they will be even more shocked to find out that they are the ones who are paying for those bonuses.