“By "flexible working", he means low wages, insecure employment."
Yet another Tory minister can’t help but show just how out of touch the Conservatives are with ordinary people struggling to make ends meet, after telling over-50s looking for extra cash to consider delivering takeaways and other flexible jobs typically occupied by younger people.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride was accused of ‘patronising seniors and the disabled’, after making the comments during a visit to the London headquarters of the food delivery firm Deliveroo, which has recorded a 62% increase in riders aged over 50 since 2021.
In an interview with the Times during the visit, he said flexible jobs offered “great opportunities” and that it was “good for people to consider options they might not have otherwise thought of”.
Stride added: “What we’re seeing here is the ability to log on and off any time you like, no requirement to have to do a certain number of hours over a certain period of time, which is driving huge opportunities.
“From an employer’s point of view in a tight labour market, it’s absolutely essential if you want to access all the available talent that you provide as flexible an offer as you can.”
Stride’s comments come after analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank found that nearly half of older people who dropped out of the workforce at the start of the pandemic were struggling financially.
His comments drew condemnation, with LFF columnist Prem Sikka tweeting: “Tory Minister wants the over-50s to deliver takeaways. Patronises seniors and the disabled.
“By “flexible working”, he means low wages, insecure employment.
“Look forward to Boris Johnson and Nadine Dorries doing takeaways, fruit-picking, fracking.”
Another social media user wrote: “The British dream: extend your mortgage so you’re still paying it off when you’re 80, and be a deliveroo driver past middle age.”
Carol Vorderman tweeted: “Sec for Work & Pensions Mel Stride has tones of Norman Tebbit, saying to those 50+ not in work – get on your bike!!
“More importantly, Tories have delayed decision on raising Pension age to 68 until after general election.
“We all know what that means!!!”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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