A LABOUR cabinet minister has resigned from his post, claiming he was asked to argue against minimum wage and statutory sick pay levels.
Andy McDonald wrote his letter of resignation to Keir Starmer this afternoon.
He said: “Yesterday your office instructed me to go into a meeting to argue against a National Minimum Wage of £15 an hour and against Statutory Sick Pay at the living wage. This is something I could not do.”
The minimum wage of £15 per hour had been a key demand of the trade union GMB.
Mr McDonald continued: “After many months of a pandemic when we made commitments to stand by key workers I cannot now look those same workers in the eye and tell them they are not worth a wage that is enough to live on, or that they don’t deserve security when they are ill.
“We live in a time when the people of this country have a renewed awareness of how important the work done by millions of low-paid workers truly is.
“To have the Labour party, the party of working people, fail to realise that is a bitter blow.”
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