DISMAY AS TORIES PLAN END TO MINIMUM WAGE
October 5, 2008 12:00 PM
Conservatives look set to scrap the minimum wage
Stephen Gilbert, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for St Austell & Newquay, has said the Conservatives "aren't living in the real world" as their plans to scrap the national minimum wage were revealed by the Sunday Mirror.
Stephen Gilbert said: "There are very many people in Cornwall who are on the minimum wage and will be very concerned at the Conservative's plan to scrap it. It is no surprise that with a shadow cabinet stuffed full of old Etonian millionaires the Conservatives don't understand what life is like for people who struggle to make ends meet each week and for whom the minimum wage offers very basic protection."
The Conservative's plans were revealed in the Sunday Mirror which quoted a senior Conservative figure as saying the party will let the minimum wage "wither on the vine".
The national set rate for adults was raised by 3.8% from £5.52 to £5.73 an hour on October 1 - the ninth increase since the measure was introduced in April 1998.
Stephen Gilbert added: "The Conservatives opposed the introduction of the minimum wage and now it is clear that they would abolish it if they came to power. At the same time they are threatening to take benefits away from people who don't do the sort of jobs that the minimum wage covers. This is potentially a real double-whammy for people struggling to pay the bills."
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