Sajid Javid has just announced that the national minimum wage will rise to £10.50 by 2024. This is another big hike. It is currently £8.21 and was just £5.93 as recently as 2010. It will end up going to everyone over 21, not 25 as currently.
The politics of this announcement are clear. The Tories want to position themselves as the people’s party, the party of the worker and delivering a big pay rise for the low paid is one way of doing that. It is also a way of promising to put more money in people’s pockets that doesn’t, directly, cost the government anything.
This should help the Tories in their bid to win over traditional Labour voters in Leave voting seats in the Midlands and the North East. As one of those close to the PM put to me recently about the party’s move away from fiscal conservatism; they know they are asking a lot in trying to get traditional Labour backers to change their vote and so they want to make it as easy as possible for them.
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