Lord Sikka (Lab)

My Lords, it is a sad day to be speaking on the Conservative amendment objecting to a rise in the minimum wage. I support the rise in the minimum wage and the acceleration of the rate for younger workers, who bear the full cost of living. The product of their labour is not sold for lower prices at Starbucks, Tesco or anywhere else. Some 25.3 million people live below the minimum living standard, and their voices must be heard. Last week the Conservatives promised to reintroduce the two-child benefit cap if they ever return to office. Over 500,000 children and their families will be pushed back into poverty. That lack of empathy is on display again today, as now they are targeting low-paid workers and depriving children and their families of nourishing food, good housing and other essentials. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has estimated that a single person needed to earn £30,500 a year to reach a minimum acceptable living standard in 2025. A couple with two children needed to earn £74,000. Even after the forthcoming minimum wage increase, millions will be well short of that target, yet the party opposite is objecting to this. It is striking that it is silent on soaraway executive pay. A typical FTSE 100 CEO collects an average UK wage in just two days, and the CEO-to-worker pay ratio is 141 times. Recently, the chief executive of Shell got a pay rise of 60%, rising to £13.8 million. The BP CEO’s pay has doubled to £11.7 million. Her daily pay exceeds the annual median wage of a UK employee. At Melrose Industries, the CEO-to-worker ratio is over 1,110 times. We never hear anything from the party opposite about such rip-offs and inequalities. The party opposite objects to a rise in the pay of younger workers, but it has not offered a single suggestion for lifting young adults out of poverty. It could support calls for the abolition of university tuition fees or the abolition of prescription charges, or promise free bus passes to under-21s as in Scotland, but it does not support any of these poverty-alleviating measures. Sadly, the opposition to the rise in the minimum wage is part of a steady decline of empathy for a large section of the population. The political discourse venerates the super-rich and scapegoats children, minorities, the poor, the disabled, the sick and the unfortunate for social problems. Empathy is the glue that holds a society together, but it is increasingly undermined by toxic political discourses. I am reminded of a quote by Hannah Arendt, who said: “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism”. Condemning millions to poverty is barbaric. We must search our souls and aim for equitable distribution of wealth to ensure that every single person in this country can live with dignity and fulfil their life.