Minister insists Labour will not apply national living wage to all over-18s before election – UK politics live

Torsten Bell says Labour manifesto ‘did not set out the timeline’ for changes to living wage after scale of youth unemployment crisis revealed in Milburn report

Good morning. Last night Alan Milburn suggested that he would like the government to drop its commitment to pay all people over the age of 18 the national living wage. The former Labour health secretary was speaking after he published a major report on the rise in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) and he implied that when the final report is published in the autumn, with policy recommendations, it will propose changes to the national living wage/minimum wage system to encourage more firms to hire young people. A change to the “discriminatory age bands” policy seems to be quite high up his list of demands.

For the record, this is what Labour said in its manifesto.

Labour will also make sure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage. We will change the remit of the independent Low Pay Commission so for the first time it accounts for the cost of living. Labour will also remove the discriminatory age bands, so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage, delivering a pay rise to hundreds of thousands of workers across the UK.

The manifesto sets out that the we should move the rates together over time. It doesn’t set a timeline on that because that’s the important role of the Low Pay Commission.

No, that’s not what it says in our manifesto, Justin. But it’s an understandable mistake. It’s a long document.

The manifesto commits us to equalising the rates. We’re absolutely committed to doing that. I’ve been a big proponent of the minimum wage over the last 25 years …

We’re going to do it in a way that relies on the Low Pay Commission to provide independent advice on how that can happen, and in general how increases in the minimum wage happen but in a way that doesn’t affect employment levels.

I’ve already said the answer is yes, we’re committed to our manifesto that we stood on and we will deliver it. But that manifesto did not set out the timeline.