David Williams, Labour's Parliamentary Candidate for Crewe and Nantwich, today joined the Wage Concern lobby of Parliament, where they scored an early victory in the campaign to stop the Tories from abolishing the minimum wage. Tory MP, Christopher Chope, bottled it today and postponed the second reading of his Bill until June 12th. Faced with having to defend his disgraceful Bill on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, Mr Chope declined the debate with Usdaw General Secretary John Hannett and pulled the Bill.
David Williams said, "It doesn't surprise me that the Tories ran for cover as soon as the spotlight was put on their disgraceful attempt to pull the rug from under low-aid workers.
"This Bill would result in the end of valuable wage protection for working people and I won't be just those on the minimum wage that will suffer. If the floor is removed, then everyone’s wages will spiral downwards.
"The campaign continues, because we cannot allow the Tories to undermine the minimum wage which has transformed Britain's Labour market for the last ten years."
John Hannett, Usdaw General Secretary and member of the Low Pay Commission, said: "This shows the Tories in their true light and is a little insight into what a Conservative Government would do. They are still fighting the battles of the 1980s and 90s when they abolished the wages councils and left my members and millions of other workers without wage protection. David Cameron talks about an age of austerity, well we now know that he means it for low-paid workers."
John Prescott MP added, "Only a Tory could suggest that not being able to work for less than minimum wage would be a denial of Human Rights. This from a party that actually wants to abolish the Human Rights Act and provide cheaper labour. I call on everyone who believes in fairness and social justice to join Wage Concern and help us kill this Tory Bill."
Please click here to join Wage Concern
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