UK minimum wage for workers is still low despite Budget boost, claims SNP MP
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An SNP MP has said that Labour's increase to the minimum wage doesn't go far enough.
Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed in the Budget on Wednesday that the minimum wage would go from £1.44 to £12.21 an hour next year - an increase of 6.7 per cent.
For 18-20-year-olds it went from £860 to £10 an hour and the Government has said it will extend the main adult rate to this age group in the future.
But Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey MP Graham Leadbitter has urged the UK Government to implement the Real Living Wage of £12.60 an hour for all adults.
The Real Living Wage is calculated independently by the Living Wage Foundation who have assessed that adults outside London need to earn at least £12.60 an hour to live comfortably.
Leadbitter accused Reeves of failing to live up to the party’s manifesto commitment to “make sure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage” and “remove the discriminatory age bands, so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage” at the Budget.
He said senior Labour figures like Scottish Leader Anas Sarwar were “celebrating mediocrity” and promoting “Tory half-truths”.
Leadbitter said: “While Labour figures are busy patting themselves on the back over a paltry increase that maintains the minimum wage at-near poverty levels, actual workers are struggling to make ends meet.
“In failing to live up to their own promises Labour have forced millions of workers to continue to endure low-pay, and have allowed the age discrimination they vowed to end to continue unchecked.
“And for them to continue calling the minimum wage a Living Wage, when it’s anything but, is a cynical attempt at celebrating their mediocrity, and is the kind of Tory half-truth we saw the last government peddle.
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“Labour politicians, especially Scottish ones, should be ashamed of this UK government’s failure, and do the decent thing now in offering up the Real Living Wage of £12.60 an hour to all workers, no matter their age.
“If they won’t, they should devolve the necessary powers to the Scottish Parliament where the SNP Scottish Government can, and will, legislate to make work pay.”
The SNP pointed out that the 6.7 per cent increase was lower than the rises the Tories implemented in 2023-24 and 2022-2023 at 9.8 and 9.7 per cent. The rise in minimum wage was higher in those years because inflation was higher.
The UK Government was approached for comment.
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