LABOUR claimed today almost 600,000 workers in the North-West would benefit from raising the minimum wage to £10 an hour.

The party would raise the legal lowest rate of pay to that level if it formed a government.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Business Secretary for Business, said in power Labour would raise the Minimum Wage to the level of the Living Wage (expected to be at least £10 per hour by 2020) for all workers aged 18 or over.

She said the party’s analysis of the figures showed that in the North-West 27 per cent of employees, more than 573,000 people

Mrs Long-Bailey said:“The stagnation of real wages has been unprecedented since at least the Second World War. We must take bold and imaginative measures to tackle low pay.

“ One crucial step in this direction is to raise the Minimum Wage to the level of the Living Wage, expected to be at least £10 per hour by 2020, for all workers aged 18 or over.

People should be rewarded for a full day’s work.”