THE minimum wage should be raised to £10 an hour, young workers demanded yesterday.

A motion proposed by transport union TSSA to the TUC young workers’ conference called for a leapfrog of the £7.85 national living wage and even the £9.15 London rate.

“It’s increasingly hard to live a decent life on the minimum wage,” TSSA delegate Judith Rodgers told the hall.

Unite’s Bryan Simpson said that Labour’s proposal would mean the minimum wage would only rise at the same rate as inflation.

“It’s a disgrace that the party that’s supposed to be representing us is proposing this,” he said.

But he warned that such a demand could not “replace the clout of collective bargaining” and insisted it was “about building a movement, not just lobbying MPs.”

Conference also voted to campaign against hated US-EU free trade deal TTIP, to work with grassroots housing campaigns and to call for more cash for childcare.

Construction union Ucatt delegate Lachlan Morrison supported a motion calling for a beefed-up programme of building “genuinely affordable” homes. 

“I’ve worked on tens of thousands of homes and I cannot afford my own house,” said the Labour councillor.

The conference, which included delegations from almost all TUC-affiliated unions, resolved to make housing a “priority campaign” for the next year.

Community delegate Max Bell said that rising living costs were forcing people to foodbanks.

“If you pardon my language, that’s a fucking disgrace,” he stormed.