LABOUR PLANS FOR A NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE

leave out from `deplores' to end and add `the drive by Ministers to create poverty in work based on hourly pay rates of under ú2 or ú3 an hour which shame a civilised society and which require subsidies by the tax-payer to low-wage firms via family and housing benefits to wage-earners earning so little they cannot sustain a decent family life; notes that the majority of OECD countries with minimum wage systems have a better record of both job creation and economic growth since 1980 than the United Kingdom; reaffirms the statement of Sir Winston Churchill made in this House that `It is a serious national evil that any class of His Majesty's subjects should recieve less than a living wage in return for their utmost exertions', and agrees with the statement of Lord Gilmour in the New Statesman that if the Prime Minister wishes to `create a classless society, it's not at all obvious that the best way of doing so is to make the poorest people even poorer'; notes that in the United States, Mr Newt Gingrich recently voted to increase the US minimum wage and that, in France, President Jacques Chirac, supports the French national monthly minimum salary, SMIC; welcomes the increasing international research showing that a minimum wage increases job stability and employment; and therefore expresses support for the minimum wage campaign launched by the honourable Member for Peckham and the TUC based on the fullest debate and partnership dialogue following a change of Government between employers and unions about the level at which the minimum wage should be set in the light of economic circumstances prevailing at the time and the best practicable manner in administering a minimum wage so that it place a floor under poverty pay exploitation, and sends a message to all citizens that they again live in one nation under an administration that accepts its responsibilities to eradicate poverty and heal social division instead of the present Government's policy of exacerbating both'.