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Poverty and Inequality

No, I will not give way to the Minister. She will have her turn to speak in a moment, when she will perhaps respond to my point about the cleaners in her own office and say whether she is happy for them to be paid below the London living wage—perhaps she is. It is interesting that there is a much lower difference in the ratio between the lowest and the highest paid in an effective organisation. The shadow Chancellor has said that any public sector wage higher than the Prime Minister's will have to be put to the Chancellor for agreement. Some 323 public sector employees are paid more than the Prime Minister. Over the weekend I learned that the Scottish First Minister is paid more than the Prime Minister, which is somewhat strange. The director-general of the BBC is on around £850,000 per year. I believe in Government leading by example. If these things matter and we are going to say to private industry, "Get your house in order", private industry can rightly say to Members of Parliament, "What's going on in those institutions over which you have some say?" We have not seen much action from this Government in that area. In answer to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak, I say that we Conservatives are committed to the minimum wage.