Employment Bill [Lords]

It might be interesting to the citizens of Liverpool that the Liberal Democrats, who control the council there, are into wage cuts for low-paid workers in Liverpool, as they were into wage cuts in the Bill that introduced the minimum wage. It is very important that there is a national minimum wage, and the way to increase it is to join a trade union and have protected negotiating rights. It is not acceptable that someone in Liverpool or the north or south of Scotland who works for a company operating throughout Britain—say, a hamburger chain—is paid less than someone doing the same job in the south-east of England. That is a ridiculous claim by the Liberal Democrats.