Tynemouth MP Alan Campbell has welcomed the announcement by the government that they are to accept the Low Pay Commission's recommendation that the National Minimum Wage will rise to £4.50 an hour for adults and £3.80 for the youth rate.

The increase is double the rate of average earnings growth and three times the rate of inflation. Nationally about 1.5 million people in the UK will benefit directly from the increase.

The government also provisionally accepted a recommendation of further increases to £4.85 for adults and £4.10 for the youth rate from October 2004. Around 2 million workers would benefit from these increases. This is good news for thousands of workers in Tynemouth constituency and good news for everyone across the community.

The National Minimum Wage far from costing 1 million jobs as the opposition claimed, is actually a huge success and part of the ongoing success of the UK economy.