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By Tony Grew - 15th July 2011
A Labour MP has proposed that the royal household should pay all its staff at least £8.30 an hour, the so-called "London living wage".
During yesterday's committee of the whole House on the sovereign grant bill, which changes the way in which the Queen is financially supported in carrying out her official duties, John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) suggested an amendment.
"Clause 2 proposes that the royal household’s accounts are to be reported," he told the House.
"I am asking that a statement be included in that report to show the number of employees who are directly or indirectly employed by the royal household and who are being paid at or below £8.30 an hour. The reason that I have arrived at the figure of £8.30 is that that is the London living wage, as set by the Mayor of London, who has described it as the wage level designed to provide a 'minimum acceptable quality of life'for people working in the capital."
McDonnell said the London living wage was started by a group of religious organisations, churches and trade unions 10 years ago, as part of a campaign to tackle poverty in the capital.
"They have campaigned over the past decade to press employers to pay the London living wage," he said.
"They have targeted cleaners, in particular, who are living in poverty. They campaigned and they won. First, they won in a number of banks at Canary Wharf, then they came to Parliament and ensured that we paid our cleaners the London living wage.
"The campaign continued right through the capital, and more than 200 major companies have now signed up to the London living wage campaign."
Mc Donnell said his amendment "would simply ask the royal household to publish the information on how many people working for the royal family, cleaning their rooms and corridors and serving them in different ways, are being paid below the London minimum wage".
"In this way, I want to recruit the royal household to support the London Citizens campaign," he told the House.
"I want it to lead the campaign. As the Mayor of London himself has said, no company in London should be paying less than the London living wage. The prime minister, the leader of the opposition and, I believe, the chancellor and the shadow chancellor have signed up to the campaign in the past. The amendment simply seeks to tackle poverty wages in London. On that basis, I hope that we can expect the unanimous support of the House."
Having raised the issue, McDonnell chose not to move the amendment.
"I do not wish to delay the committee, as there are more important amendments to consider," he said.
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