• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

MayorWatch

London News and Comment

  • NEWS
  • Twitter

Differing claims over Boris’s Living Wage ‘failure’ suggests Khan’s not making best use of Labour’s AMs

November 2, 2015 - Martin Hoscik@MayorWatch

sadiq_khan_rallyBy this point in the 2012 Mayoral contest Ken Livingstone had harnessed up his party’s London Assembly members and was using them to glean information through Mayor’s Question Time and members’ correspondence which he could then use to inform his campaign.

Tory AMs did the same for Boris who couldn’t order City Hall staff to compile or create data for political purposes but is obliged to provide it for any AM who asks a question.

But it seems this time around there’s a bit of a gap between Sadiq Khan and the AMs, with several telling me in recent weeks that they’ve had little direct contact with the would-be Mayor and others lamenting a lack of co-ordination between his camp and their offices.

Today brings us a good illustration of this second gripe.

With Boris announcing an increase in the hourly London Living Wage rate and a further boost in the number of employers paying it, the proximity of the election meant it was inevitable opposition politicians would rush to denounce his efforts as ‘not good enough’.

But in their haste to criticise the Mayor it seems two Labour spokespeople forgot to cross-check their statements and their facts.

Labour’s London Assembly Economic Spokesperson, Fiona Twycross AM, has issued the following statement:

“Whilst this rise is welcome the real tragedy is that over 900,000 Londoners now earn below the London Living Wage, that’s almost one in five of the capital’s workforce and significantly more than when Boris Johnson came to power.

“Low paid Londoners need a Mayor who will do far more to get businesses signed up to pay the London Living Wage. Without real action to get business fully signed up, hard-working families in the capital will continue to earn a wage which keeps them in poverty.”

Yet Sadiq’s campaign have released a statement claiming:

“Nearly 700,000 London workers are paid less than the London Living Wage, and 1.2 million Londoners in poverty are part of a working family.”

So two politicians from the same party are citing figures which contradict each other by more than 200,000.

The discrepancy comes because Khan has sourced his number from the Trust for London’s latest Poverty Profile while Twycross’s higher, and therefore politically more useful, number comes from Boris himself.

That of course is the figure Sadiq should have been waving around because it has Boris’s fingerprints all over it. Instead he’s managed to claim the incumbent Mayor been more successful than his own official figures suggest.

Oops!

Some better co-ordination between Labour’s AMs and their Mayoral candidate is going to be essential in the months ahead and the new boy might do well to occasionally bow to his colleagues’ greater knowledge on some of the key campaign themes.

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Tagged With: 2016 London Elections

RECENT UPDATES

Tube and rail users to benefit from Oyster weekly fares cap

Mayor and TfL call on ministers to help plug funding gap

Tube to get full mobile phone coverage from 2024

TfL says Direct Vision Standard is already making HGVs safer for London road users




POPULAR

City Hall to move to Docklands as Mayor seeks to raise £55m for frontline services

‘Concern’ over TfL’s ability to deliver major projects in wake of Crossrail cost overruns

City Hall halts London Overground ticket office closures but many will still see opening hours reduced

Transport for London confirms bus cuts will go ahead despite passenger opposition

GOT A STORY?

As the original London news and scrutiny site we've been casting an eye over the capital's public services and politicians since 1999.

 

Many of our top stories started with a tip-off from a reader - if you've got something you'd like us to cover get in touch and we'll do the rest.

Stay In Touch

  • E-mail
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.