Taylor Review: Working Practices

Debate between Margot James and Peter Grant

Tuesday 11th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Margot James]

Perhaps the hon. Lady would like to write to me with more details because this is the first time I have heard of that particular practice. It certainly sounds wrong, and I would be delighted to consider it further within the powers that currently exist.

[Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)]

Page 11 of Mr Taylor’s report says:

“we have to examine why, with employment levels at record highs, a significant number of people living in poverty are in work.”

For as long as I have been here, when Members have asked questions about poverty, it has been the Government’s practice to respond with statistics about employment and unemployment. Will they now finally accept that such a thing as in-work poverty not only exists, but is a brutal fact of life for millions of people on these islands?

[Margot James]

We have always been absolutely committed to reducing poverty, wherever it exists. The national living wage has gone a long way towards providing workers with a framework so that they need not sink into poverty, and I urge the hon. Gentleman to consider that fact further.