MINIMUM WAGE AND WESTMINSTER’S LONGEST-RUNNING ADAPTATION OF THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES

EVEN for a Government becoming increasingly renowned for its U-turns, the coalition’s change of heart on increasing the national minimum wage must have set new records for speediness.

On 15 January 2014, I took part in a debate in the House of Commons in support of a Labour motion demanding that the Government take action to restore the value of the minimum wage. Not only that, but we called for greater enforcement against employers paying below the minimum wage and for companies to be encouraged to pay the higher-still Living Wage.

Predictably, our motion was shot down by a Government who gave no real reason for rejecting its sensible demands, with the Business Secretary Vince Cable presenting a particularly unconvincing and fragmented case for the coalition. Yet, literally 24 hours later, the Chancellor decided to announce that the minimum wage would be going up after all.

Now I don’t want to give the impression that I disagree with the Chancellor’s sentiments; far from it, I will be delighted to see the minimum wage increase – and my representations in the House of Commons before the announcement demonstrates that.

But – really – what possible justification can he now offer for his coalition Government’s actions in rejecting the Labour motion just a day earlier? This coalition truly is all over the place.

On the one hand we have the Lib Dems, who had somehow managed to previously build up this image as reasonable middle-man as the ‘alternative’ party to either Labour or the Conservatives. They have been particularly shocked to find that with responsibility comes accountability, and with accountability comes the risk of criticism.

And, boy, have they faced some deserved criticism in the last three-and-a-half years, with neither the guts to deliver their own promises or the gumption to challenge those of the Tories. Then we have David Cameron and his Conservatives.

They arrogantly thought, and still believe, that control brought with it a right to impose ideology, and have inflicted some of the worst-ever cuts to low and middle earners. Yet the performance of UKIP has them visibly flustered.

They don’t know whether to stray into even more extreme policies themselves or try to take a more reasoned ground into territory they are hopelessly unfamiliar with. And it’s that unfamiliarity which makes Mr Osborne’s announcement so bizarre.

Let us not forget that the Conservatives – and many Lib Dems – actually opposed the introduction of a minimum wage to start with.

Fifteen years have passed since Labour civilised our society by introducing the minimum wage, but our opponents were wheeling out the same flawed arguments about supposed costs to the economy then as Mr Cable was erroneously repeating last week.

Those arguments are of course utter nonsense. With higher earnings come more disposable income, and that in turns prompts local spending which revives the economy. You’d have thought Mr Cable, who the Lib Dems seem to have somehow convinced some onlookers to be a sort-of wizard economist, in Westminster’s longest-running adaptation of the Emperor’s New Clothes, would have been able to figure that one out by himself.

I, for one, will be delighted to see the national minimum wage increase. Families are on average £1,600 a year worse off and the minimum wage is worth less in real terms than it was in May 2010. But I would have been a great deal happier if the coalition Government had taken on board the rest of Labour’s motion too – penalising employers who pay below minimum wage and encouraging companies to go higher still with the Living Wage.

Perhaps Mr Osborne will announce those new Tory ideas next week.