All five of Labour's leadership candidates have expressed their complete support for a living wage.
All five of Labour’s leadership candidates have expressed their complete support for a living wage; they were responding to questions from Unions Together, the campaigning voice for the 15 trade unions that are part of the Labour Party, which will be asking a series of questions from members each week throughout the remainder of the four-and-a-half month campaign. It was not just the right thing to do, insisted the candidates, but made good business sense, with companies who have already implemented a living wage, like Barclays, seeing real benefits in lower staff turnover and higher productivity.
Diane Abbott said legislation should be introduced “to ensure that government tenders are not able to be taken up by contractors who are not prepared to pay a living wage to their staff”, while Ed Balls, the only Government minister to introduce a living wage within his department, highlighted the problems of enforcement, saying there was “a strong case for a unified Employment Inspectorate”.
Andy Burnham said introducing a living wage in the public and private sectors “will be a priority” under his leadership, David Miliband said a living wage would “complement the National Minimum Wage”, adding Labour was “right at the general election to argue that it should rise at least in line with average earnings over the next few years”, and Ed Miliband said Labour members “can and should campaign to raise the wages of the lowest paid employees in shops and banks as well as councils”.
Elsewhere, reaction has been mixed to the first live TV debate of the leadership campaign, which was aired on the BBC’s Newsnight last night. Richard Darlington, head of the Open Left project at Demos, blogged on Labour List that it was a “missed opportunity” for the candidates:
None of the candidates managed to get the first rule of TV debate technique right. Rule number one: During your opening statement, look down the barrel of the camera and talk to the voter on the sofa in their living room. None of them did it.
Andy Burnham, Ed and David Miliband did slightly better when applying rule number two: when answering a question from a studio audience member, use their name in your reply and reflect empathy with the point that their question raises before you set out your own position, in your own words. But they all handled Jeremy Paxman’s cross examination and none of them gaffed.
The format also came in for criticism:
Having picked 20 former Labour voters to form the studio audience, those people managed to ask just two questions: the first on why none of them stood against Gordon Brown and the other on deficit reduction. Jeremy Paxman encouraged just one comeback from the audience but the man in the green jumper (James) said he wasn’t satisfied with any of the answers.
Ben Brogan in the Telegraph described the spectacle as the “Labour leadership goes Motown”:
We didn’t learn much new from Newsnight about the relative merits of the five candidates for the Labour leadership. The first striking thing was the look: four tall white men looking down at one short black woman, like some kind of Motown via Boyzone spin-off – Diane Abbott and the Pimps (Certain lies, smiles and frowns/The goin ups and the comin downs…).
In a process that has so long to run it would be a fool who bet against her, especially as she acquitted herself fairly well last night. For a Labour electorate she presents a superficial authenticity which contrasts well with her opponents.
He concluded:
One other thought: the Milibands need to work on their stock of cheesy phrases. Ed: “We should think about the future, not the past.” David: “We shouldn’t be talking about a better yesterday when we should be imagining a better tomorrow.” Puhleeze…
Meanwhile, the latest audience hustings took place on Monday, hosted by the Fabian Society in partnership with Compass, Progress, Labour List, Left Foot Forward and the Young Fabians, at which the key debating points were the alternative vote and political reform; how to move foreign policy on from Iraq; regrets about Labour’s record in Government; how to improve women’s representation; why inequality matters; and what socialism means to the candidates.
A Next Left first-past-the-post exit poll of the debate saw Ed Miliband coming out on top, with 39.9 per cent of votes, followed by David on 30.7 per cent, Diane on 12.9 per cent, Andy on 11 per cent and Ed Balls trailing in last on 5.5 per cent.
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