Corbyn climb-down over pay cap dismissed as a '˜shambles'

Jeremy Corbyn has risked sparking a further row within the Labour party, following a 'shambolic' attempt to reboot his image.
Labour leader Jeremy CorbynLabour leader Jeremy Corbyn
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

The trouble began this morning when the Labour leader issued a surprise call for a maximum wage cap, prior to a keynote speech on Brexit.

The proposals were quickly dismissed as “unworkable” by some MPs, resulting in a watered-down policy calling for voluntary pay limits.

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This was accompanied by an apparent U-turn on migration controls, as Mr Corbyn refused to rule out support for continued freedom of movement.

The confusion marks the latest in a series of contradictory messages from the party leadership over its stance on immigration.

Only last month, the Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer stated that the “rules on free movement have got to be changed” putting him in direct conflict with Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbot.

A number of so-called moderate MPs have also called for tighter migration controls, and on Monday it seemed Mr Corbyn had taken note when a preview of his speech revealed he would say Labour “is not wedded to freedom of movement”.

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However, when the Islington North MP got up to speak this afternoon, it became clear that the speech had been amended to say that he would not “rule [free movement] out”.

This was immediately criticised by the Conservative Party, with chairman Patrick McLoughlin claiming Mr Corbyn was “out of touch with ordinary working people”.

He said the “chaotic” speech showed Labour “simply will not take control over immigration”.

Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake suggested that the party was “an utter shambles”.

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He said: “After so many U-turns... we are no closer to knowing where Labour policy on Europe differs from the Tories”.

Corbyn’s second climbdown followed a backlash against his call for a maximum pay cap.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of his speech, the Labour leader said he would like to see a “maximum earnings limit” because it is a “fairer thing to do”.

He said: “We have worse levels of income disparity than most of the OECD countries in this country. It is getting worse.

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“If we want to live in a more egalitarian society and fund our public services, we cannot go on creating worse levels of inequality.”

This seemingly unexpected intervention drew criticism from a number of Labour MPs, as well as from two former advisors to Mr Corbyn.

One-time aid Danny Blanchflower argued it was a “lunatic idea” that would “generate a huge brain drain, while academic Richard Murphy said it made no economic sense.

And speaking to this paper, the Penistone and Stockbridge MP Angela Smith described it simply as “unworkable”.

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She said: “It looks as though it provides an answer to the growing inequality we are seeing across the country... but it would make us increasingly uncompetitive in terms of the global economy.

“I would like to see Corbyn getting to grips with the really complex problems this country faces rather than coming up with gimmicky solutions which don’t really offer any meaningful way forward.”

Once again, when it came to delivering the speech, there was no mention of a pay cap, only a pay ratio. This was framed as a voluntary scheme that would see wages for a company’s highest-paid employees limited only in relation to the amount given to its lowest-paid.

A spokesman later said Mr Corbyn “misspoke” during the BBC interview.