03 August 2023 , 21:08
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Tory Mel Stride was branded “out of touch” after suggesting cash-strapped over-50s get work delivering takeaways.
At 61, the Tory minister may have been thinking about his own job prospects after the General Election when he made the “Tebbitesque” comments, condemned by unions and politicians. The number of over-50s Deliveroo riders has risen 62% since 2021.
Asked if more over-50s should apply for rider jobs, Work and Pensions Secretary Mr Stride told the Times: “There are loads of great opportunities out there for people and it’s of course good for people to consider options they might not have otherwise thought of.”
Lib Dem Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney said: “This is a classic Tory Tebbitesque manoeuvre. They’re out of ideas, so they revert to the past. If this Government thinks the best way to get over-50s in work is to tell them to ‘get on their bikes’ then they are even more out of touch than you could ever imagine.”
Norman Tebbit, caricatured as Margaret Thatcher’s skinhead enforcer by 1980s TV series Spitting Image, was Secretary of State for Employment in 1981 when he told the Tory Party conference how his jobless father had “got on his bike” to find work. Taken as advice for the unemployed, his comments caused outrage.
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Norman Tebbit (Mirrorpix)
Tebbit was lampooned as a thuggish enforcer on Spitting Image (ITV / Rex Features)Mr Stride was called “out of touch” for his idea on getting the 3.4 million over-50s who are “economically inactive” but below retirement age back into work. Insisting firms like Deliveroo offered “huge opportunities, he said: “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.”
He denied suggesting retiring early was wrong, saying he wanted to “open people’s eyes to what their current situation is and what the opportunities are”. Tim Sharp, senior employment policy rights officer at the TUC, told the Mirror: “These comments are out of touch.
Mel Stride (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)“Hundreds of thousands of over-50s are leaving the labour market due to ill health, but the Government’s response is telling them to do physically demanding work in the gig economy.” Shadow Work Minister Justin Madders said: “I would suggest that if the Tories really wanted more people working in the gig economy they would do something to tackle the low pay and endemic insecurity in that sector.”
Labour peer Prem Sikka posted: “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.”
Silver Voices director Dennis Reed said: “Mel Stride needs to get out of his cosy office and experience the real world of struggling pensioners. Only a tiny proportion of older people would have enough strength and stamina to cope with the relentless physical pressure of the delivery riders’ world, and why should they when there is a state pension retirement age?”
Ministers are battling to get more people back to work after a rise in economic inactivity since the pandemic. In total, around 8.6 million people are “economically inactive”, according to the Office for National Statistics , equivalent to one in five working adults. Mr Stride has previously hailed flexible working as “the way forward” and not “just for the over-50s, but often for those who have disabilities”.
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