Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What the minimum wage debate tells us about the Tory Right

The Conservative debate about the minimum wage continues today, with campaign group Renewal pushing for an increase, at least in line with inflation. Renewal is launching an interesting agenda today aimed at making capitalism work for groups who currently feel it fails them, such as the low paid and those living in deindustrialised towns in northern England.

The group’s work, ‘Renewing Capitalism’, is supported by Robert Halfon, the Tory MP who is always trying to work out ways of broadening the Conservative appeal. He says: ‘It was a big mistake for the Conservative party to oppose the minimum wage. We must right that wrong by at least increasing it in line with inflation. We should not make the same mistake. We must move on to ensure that everyone, in the north and the south, on low wages as well as high, can benefit from the proceeds of growth. If we say that the Conservative Party is on the side of hardworking people then we have to really mean it.’

This isn’t particularly surprising coming from Robert Halfon, whose views on the labour market and Conservative appeal are well known. But what is interesting is the way the Conservative party is conducting itself on this debate about raising the wage. Broadcast producers are struggling to find anyone who will come on to argue that this is a bad idea. Last week Halfon found himself having a debate on Newsnight with another Tory MP, Mark Reckless, who also agreed that the minimum wage should go up and that the party made a mistake opposing it in the past. Meanwhile, other MPs normally associated with the Right of the party such as Stewart Jackson, have also publicly said that the party made a mistake and that they too are lobbying the Chancellor for a rise.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in