Rayner – Chancellor selling out key workers by freezing pay and must act to introduce a living wage of £10 an hour

Speaking at online rally for fair pay organised by Labour Unions this evening (Monday), Rayner, who was a care worker before becoming an MP will call on the government to end “poverty wages” that workers can barely survive on and increase the minimum wage to a level that people can live on – “a real living wage of at least £10 an hour”.

Responding to claims by the Chancellor that freezing pay for millions of workers is not a return to austerity, Rayner will tell the Chancellor to “tell that to the care worker trying to feed their family on £8 an hour”, or “the hospital porter or teaching assistant struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table”.

On reports of a public sector pay freeze, Angela Rayner will say:

“The Chancellor says that a pay freeze for millions of the key workers who have put their lives on the line through this crisis is not a return to austerity. He is wrong.

“Tell that to the care worker trying to feed their family on £8 an hour. Tell that to the hospital porter or the teaching assistant struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table.

“Tory Ministers fell over themselves to clap our key workers when the cameras were rolling and now they want to sell them out.

“Under this government our key workers are getting their pay frozen whilst Ministers are handing out contracts to their mates. It’s a disgrace and the Chancellor must think again before the Spending Review on Wednesday”.

Demanding a living wage of at least £10 an hour, Angela Rayner will say:

“This crisis has shown who we can’t survive without and who is the real backbone of our economy and our society – our key workers.

“It is just plain wrong that three quarters of our care workers do not even earn a living wage, and so many key workers are being paid poverty wages that they can barely survive on.

“When the Tories voted against free school meals they said they wanted to focus on the structural causes of child poverty.

“Poverty pay causes child poverty, so if the government actually cares about tackling child poverty then they would act to increase the minimum wage to a level that people can actually live on and support a family on.

“Nobody should be working for poverty wages. Every worker should be paid a wage that they can actually live on, and that means a real living wage of at least £10 an hour now.”