John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, responding to the NAO report out today that reveals an estimated 209,000 jobs not paying the NMW and a hike of 32,000 people who are still owed pay due to breaches of the national minimum wage in last year, said:

“The fact that we have 209,000 jobs still not paying the minimum wage in our economy plus we have seen a hike of 32,000 in the past year of the number of people still waiting for the money they are owed for a hard days work should bring shame to George Osborne and this Tory Government who pretend to be on the side of working people.

"The further shocking figures that show such a large number of people, 313,000 people - the equivalent of a city the size of Cardiff, who are still owed £68 million due to breaches in the since 1999, suggests more still needs to be done to make sure that they get the pay owed to them.

"But alarm bells should also be going off at HMRC today following such a stark fall last year in the number of people not reporting breaches through the helpline since the government changed the operator. We need Treasury Ministers to urgently look into why this large drop off has happened.

"The problem is that it’s hard to truly believe that we have a Chancellor who really takes such matters seriously when he has spent his time in Government cutting the staffing numbers at HMRC, attacking trade union rights and cutting in-work benefits for the low paid.

"Labour will stand up for working people and build a fairer economy for the future that works for all.”