Tory Mayoral hopeful Ivan Massow has admitted to not paying campaign staff the higher London Living Wage despite calling on other employers to do so.
Massow’s campaign website lists his priorities for “a fairer London” as “addressing the rising cost of living and vigorously championing the case for more businesses to pay the London Living Wage”.
However appearing on Shelagh Fogarty’s LBC show on Friday, Massow admitted to paying his own campaign staff the national minimum of £6.50 per hour rather than the £9.15 per hour LLW.
When confronted about the gap between his rhetoric and own actions, the would-be Mayor said “it’s a choice between having no-one, having no kind of assistance, or offering someone some kind of a role and I found I was flooded with applications because people want to get involved.”
Labour have been quick to attack the revelation.
Fiona Twycross, the party’s Economy Spokesperson on the London Assembly, said: “London needs a mayor who understands the need to tackle low pay, not add to it.
“It is absolutely appalling that a potential mayoral candidate, who acknowledges how expensive our city is, thinks it’s okay to pay his staff less than you need to live on in the capital.
“The fact that he then goes so far as to say that people should work for free when starting their careers shows just how out of touch he is.”
Damian Hockney says
Pitiful, and the explanation heroically and monumentally stupid. In essence calling for others to do something but then giving yourself a free pass to disobey your own supposed beliefs. Is it any wonder that people do not trust or believe politicians?
The whole business of younger people from privileged backgrounds working cheaply because they are subsidised, as interns or whatever in desirable areas of the economy (eg on newspapers/magazines/campaigns etc), is a very sensitive one: this candidate clearly just does not grasp the fact.