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PM Vows Clampdown Over National Living Wage

PM Vows Clampdown Over National Living Wage

David Cameron has kicked off the autumn political season with a pledge to crackdown on bosses who fail to pay the new National Living Wage.

Writing in The Times, the Prime Minister said the new, higher minimum wage, which will reach £9 an hour by the end of the decade , will work only if it is properly enforced.

So fines for non-payment will double, hitting employers with a penalty worth 200% of unpaid wages, up to a maximum of £20,000.

Bosses who fail to pay face disqualification as company directors for up to 15 years.

Senior Tories told Sky News the new measures signal the Conservatives' determination to become "the true party of working people" and exploit Labour divisions as its leadership contest enters the final fortnight.

In his first comments on the likely victory of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, Mr Cameron said he has forced all the leadership candidates into a "race to the left" and into a past that many - including him - thought was dead.

"Those of us who fought socialism in the 1980s and perhaps thought that the 'red in tooth and claw' variety was dead were clearly wrong," he wrote.

"Listening to some of the anti-Nato, anti-American, profoundly anti-business and anti-enterprise debates is like Groundhog Day."

All the candidates are "slaves to a failed dogma that has always left working people paying the price", he added.

Writing ahead of MPs' return to Westminster next week, Mr Cameron put battles over union powers and minimum pay at the heart of an autumn strategy against Labour's new leader.

He also committed to an increase in the enforcement budget for Revenue & Customs and a new senior "enforcement director" in charge of pursuing those businesses dodging the new minimum wage.

Mr Cameron said: "To unscrupulous employers who think they can get labour on the cheap, the message is clear: underpay your staff, and you will pay the price."

The measures are a pointed rebuke to many business leaders who have expressed concern the new wage is set too high and will cost jobs.

Mr Cameron contrasted the Government's agenda with what he said was the "borrow, tax and spend more" message from Labour - "all the things that failed in the last century and were rejected at the last election".

He claimed the Labour candidates had all shown disturbing willingness to obey left-wing union leaders like those behind the industrial action on the London Underground this summer.

"This contrast between Labour support for disruptive strikes and our action to help people get on again drives home the point: which is the true party of working people today?

"Labour, who support the unions of well-paid Tube drivers and even better paid union bosses?

"Or us, the Conservatives - the ones who are on the side of the student who just wants to get to college, the nurse who just wants to get to work, the shopkeeper who just wants to get some customers through her door."

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