Sir Keir Starmer faces row with Labour's left over minimum wage increase

Sir Keir Starmer faces a further row with Labour's left wing later as the party conference votes on proposals to raise the minimum wage to £15 an hour.

The Labour leadership has said it will not encourage party members to back or reject the motion.

But on Monday, Andy McDonald quit as shadow employment secretary saying Sir Keir had ordered him to oppose the rise and calling his position "untenable".

Figures on the left have accused Sir Keir of abandoning party's principles.

However, the Labour leader has said his focus was on winning the next general election.

Arguments between the left, including supporters of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour members loyal to the present leader have dominated the conference in Brighton.

Now, the Unite union is putting the motion calling for the minimum wage to increase to £15 to a vote on Tuesday.

The package of measures also include demands for an end to zero-hour contracts and calls for a "better work-life balance".

Motions that are passed at the conference do not automatically become party policy.

Labour's existing policy is that the minimum wage should be "at least" £10 per hour.

The current minimum wage is £8.91 for those 23 and over, £8.36 for those aged 21 to 22 and £6.56 for 18 to 20-year olds.

Raising the minimum wage was not one of the 10 pledges Sir Keir made when running for the Labour leadership last year, but he supported a campaign in 2019 - before he was leader - for McDonald's to improve their workers' pay and conditions.

At the time, he said: "They're not asking for the Earth. They're asking for the basics - £15 an hour, the right to know their hours in advance and to have trade union recognition. That ought to be the norm in 21st Century Britain."

But, in a scathing resignation letter, Mr McDonald claimed the leader's office had instructed him go to a meeting at the party conference and "argue against a national minimum wage of £15 an hour and against statutory sick pay at the living wage".

"After many months of a pandemic when we made commitments to stand by key workers, I cannot now look those same workers in the eye and tell them they are not worth a wage that is enough to live on, or that they don't deserve security when they are ill," he added.

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a senior figure on Labour's left, said: "Questions have got to be asked about Keir Starmer… the conference is falling apart."

Mr McDonald was one of only a few members of previous Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's frontbench team who continued to serve after Sir Keir took over.

Responding to his resignation, Sir Keir released a statement which said: "I want to thank Andy for his service in the shadow cabinet.

"Labour's comprehensive New Deal for Working People shows the scale of our ambition and where our priorities lie."