The deputy leader of Westminster Council has caused anger after claiming that a 'basic' first-job salary is in the region of £50,000 to £80,000.
The deputy leader of Westminster Council has caused anger after claiming that a ‘basic’ first-job salary pays in the region of £50,000 to £80,000.
Talking about housing the London, cllr Robert Davis said
“What we really need is affordable housing, not just social housing, for people who are in their first job, have just got a basic, simple job and a salary of £50,000 to £80,000 a year.”
Cllr Davis made the comments during an interview with a PR company that specialises in working with property developers.
In reality, anyone earning over £50,000 would be in the top 10 per cent of earners, and the top 30 per cent in Westminster. The average full-time employee in the UK earns £26,200 according to the latest figures from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, while the average basic graduate salary is between £27,000 – £29,000.
Fellow Westminster councillor David Boothroyd said it showed “the sections of society the council leadership is in touch with”.
“With everyone else, they’re not so much out of touch, as completely cut off,” Mr Boothroyd said.
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82 Responses to “Tory council leader believes ‘basic salary’ is 80k”
Richard Corso
Could the Councillors electorate please ensure this clown is not re-elected – he’s obviously living in cloud cuckoo land and does not deserve to be in any sort of position of authority.
Runesmith
Seriously, I want to know. Why does someone who’ll obviously suffer from this government’s policies support them? If we knew that, it would help.
TM
‘What an idiot. How did he get his job?’ Because he’s a rich Tory boy with connections and very probably went to the ‘right’ school. Or he is a wonderfully hard working self made man with lots of natural intelligence, a very high IQ and a brilliantly educated man, just like citizen Boris. (note the sarcasm)
TM
If someone votes against their own interests, they are a) beyond help b) brainwashed, the type who look up to the royals, Boris, etc c) not the cleverest tools in the box or d) the Right wing little Englander type who want to be rich and powerful and because they never will be hate all those people beneath them and above them and probably hate themselves as well!!! Well I suspect only a masochist would vote for such a government as we have now, especially if they were poor or on a low wage. But, takes all sorts hey?!
TM
We now live in two worlds. One world the world of low wages, dead end part time and zero hours contract jobs, with uncertainty and less and less chance of escaping that reality, less chances of getting a degree and on the housing market and the contemptuous and borderline fascist ideology that underpins it all coming more and more from the rich and powerful and privileged.
The other world is that of the rich and privileged, those that live in ivory towers, wealthy, privileged, knowing no hardship but creating it for the rest of us, and with hardly any attempt at hiding their class and race and other prejudices these people have about the rest of us who are not privileged like them. Why do we put up with it? Why does anyone not privileged vote these people in to lord it over us? Isn’t this a democracy after all? What sort of democracy allows the privileged few to carve up a modern country like the slave owners carved up Jamaica in the early 19th century? It is your choice. You live in a 19th century country going backwards and run by people who couldn’t give a toss about you, or you can strive for a country that is at least in the 21st century and is going forward, even if slowly. The Labour Party has to lead by example and that it will change, away from inherited privilege and where people are judged on the content of their characters and not because they are descended from some long dead, long forgotten aristocrat or some shady slave trader.
£80,000 is a normal wage on planet privileged and planet Tory and planet politician but for most of us £15,000 a year would be considered good. Just where do these people come from? When are you all going to wake up?
Do you want more of the same, or change?