This week we have seen the contrast of pay in Cameron’s Britain. It was announced that under the Tories workers in Wyre Forest have seen their pay fall by 10%. A third of local workers get less than the living wage and nationally the number on zero hours contracts has gone up to 1.8 million.

Tory MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind stated that he couldn’t survive on only £67,000 which allegedly justified taking cash for influence in a Channel 4 sting. Ed Miliband moved to stop MPs taking second jobs but Cameron refused to follow his example.

Whilst real wages in Wyre Forest have gone down since 2010 the average pay for FTSE 100 bosses rose by 26%.

There is one rule for the hard pressed many and another for those few at the top.

Labour believes in decent pay for a hard day’s work and will act to make work pay by raising the minimum wage to £8 an hour by 2020, offering tax breaks to employers who pay the living wage, banning exploitative zero hours contracts and cutting taxes for low and middle income earners through a 10p starting rate of tax.

Matt Lamb

Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Wyre Forest