Will Ed Miliband’s pledge on the Living Wage, made in today’s Independent on Sunday, work? Actually, that’s not really the most important question: the experience of the weeks following the autumn conference season is that you don’t actually need a workable pledge to be able to set the terms of debate.
The Labour leader’s plan is for private and public sector employers to receive a tax rebate – on average £445, but up to £1,000 – for 12 months for every employee whose pay is lifted to living wage level of £7.45 an hour. He says this will be paid directly through increased tax and national insurance receipts.
The big question now is how the Conservatives respond to this. Currently the response is a CCHQ attack from Grant Shapps, pointing out that Ed Balls once mentioned a scheme of this kind would incur higher borrowing.
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