by Conrad Landin

in Liverpool

STINGY bosses would be forced to pay workers at least £10 an hour under a Labour government, John McDonnell vowed yesterday.

The shadow chancellor brought Labour’s conference to a roaring standing ovation as he announced the party would legislate to bring poverty pay to an end.

He blasted the Tories’ economic record, saying the government had repeatedly failed on its own terms.

“Our economy is failing on productivity because the Tories are failing to deliver the investment it needs and government investment is still planned to fall in every remaining year of this parliament,” he said.

“When we win the next election we will write a real living wage into law,” he said.

“We’ll charge a new living wage review body with the task of setting it at the level needed for a decent life. Independent forecasts suggest that this will be over £10 per hour. This will be a fundamental part of our new bargain in the workplace.”

The news was immediately welcomed by trade unions which have campaigned for the £10 rate and ridiculed the Tories’ “living wage” for being totally insufficient for pulling workers out of poverty.

GMB young members chair David Hamblin said: “Workers’ difficulties keeping up with the cost of living has become a crisis across the country and it’s up to the UK government to ensure that the lowest paid aren’t left behind by the rising costs of rent, bills and essentials that threaten to overwhelm them.”

Mr McDonnell also announced a crackdown on tax avoiders and gangmasters through a massive increase in government inspections. He said this would “make sure there are no more national scandals like Mike Ashley of Sports Direct.”

Civil Service union PCS, which represents tax investigators, said the plan was “very welcome and something we have long argued for.”

The union’s general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It makes no economic or logical sense to keep cutting staff and resources in the department that brings in the taxes that fund the other public services we all rely on.”

Mr McDonnell said the “winds of globalisation” were “blowing against the belief in the free market and in favour of intervention” — proven by the need for regulation in the steel industry.

Addressing the conference, general union Unite leader Len McCluskey said Labour’s economic policy could be a message of hope.

“The old model has failed,” he said. “It has crashed and burned. But we can say loud and proud, here is Labour’s forward-looking offer.

“This is an offer that fairly redistributes the gains to be made from automation, technological advances and the developing gig economy.

“It is a plan that offers young people hope, which reverses the explosion of insecure, zero-hours jobs and poverty wages and reshapes the economy as one built for the millions and not for the millionaires.”

Bakers’ union BFAWU national president Ian Hodson said: “Now we are a big step closer to realising the demand of £10 an hour, a decent wage for every worker. This would raise the living standards of millions of low-paid workers in this country.”

Public-sector union Unison’s general secretary Dave Prentis said Labour must prioritise reversing privatisations, which he said had been “an unmitigated disaster” for workers and the public.

Labour executive member Jennie Formby warned: “We must offer more than the ‘cuts too far, too fast’ rhetoric of 2015. And we’re working hard to make sure we are coherent and credible in everything we do.”

The shadow chancellor’s speech was greeted by ambivalent responses from bosses’ groups.

Manufacturers’ organisation EEF said welcomed Mr McDonnell “talking in depth about the importance of industrial strategy” but said “a return to collective bargaining is a backward step.”

Mr McCluskey also warned opponents of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership that the fight ahead would require unity.

“I say to the merchants of doom, in the words of Shakespeare’s Henry V: ‘If you have no stomach for this fight — depart the battlefield’.”

The shadow chancellor said Labour could deliver a society that was “radically transformed, radically fairer, more equal and more democratic” in Britain.

“In this party you no longer have to whisper it, it’s called socialism,” he concluded.

conradlandin@peoples-press.com

Star comment: