Britain’s Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn has called for the introduction of a maximum wage in the U.K. to combat inequality, among other reforms, as he set out his vision to ensure that Britain was “better off” outside the EU in the future, pledging for the first time to “accept the challenges” that voters had given his party following the referendum, including on immigration.
Mr. Corbyn told the popular BBC Today programme that the introduction of a maximum wage cap was necessary to create a more egalitarian society and fund the nation’s public services, pointing to the recent crisis in the National Health Service (NHS).
“We can’t go on creating worse levels of inequality…what I would like to see is a maximum earnings limit…its the fairer thing to do,” he said. “We cannot set ourselves to be a grossly unequal bargain basement economy on the shores of Europe.”
Later in the day, at a speech in the English town of Peterborough, which voted overwhelmingly to leave, Mr. Corbyn elaborated on Labour’s plans for post-Brexit Britain, telling his audience that while Britain could be better off outside the EU, it was not inevitable. “It certainly won’t happen with a government that stands by whilst wages and salaries are driven down, industry is hollowed out and public services are cut to the point of breakdown.” He pointed to the removal of EU state aid rules that limited the help the government could give to industry as an example of how Britain could benefit from leaving the EU.
Change of tone
In a marked change of tone, Mr. Corbyn also said the party accepted the challenge that voters had given them on immigration. While public services were not under pressure “primarily” because of immigration, he acknowledged that “migration had put a strain on public services in some areas”. He said that a Labour government would reintroduce the Migrant Impact Fund that had been set up by Gordon Brown’s administration to support public services and would put more funding into English-language teaching. “In many sectors of the economy, from IT to health and social care, migrant workers make a vital and very important contribution to our common prosperity and in many parts of the country public services depend on migrant labour,” he said
While he pledged to guarantee the rights of EU citizens already in the U.K., he said that the party was not “wedded to freedom of movement of EU citizens as a point of principle”.
“Labour supports fair rules and the reasonable management of migration as part of the post-Brexit relationship with the EU… while putting jobs and living standards first in the negotiations,” he said.
Actions to prevent the undercutting of pay and conditions, the banning of the exclusive advertising of jobs abroad, and the strengthening of work place protection would help reduce the number of EU migrant workers, he said.
Elaborating on his plans to tackle income disparity, Mr. Corbyn suggested that initiatives to incentivise companies to introduce pay ratios might be an alternative, arguing that the policy would not hit aspiration or opportunities for growth but was about acknowledging that success was a collective effort, whose rewards must be shared. “You can’t run a company without a whole team… it just points to a fairer society.”
