Conservatives would leave low-paid workers stranded by letting the national minimum wage "wither away", Labour claimed yesterday.

Party chairman Ian McCartney and trade secretary Patricia Hewitt joined forces at a press conference to remind voters that Michael Howard had opposed a national minimum wage before and after the 1997 election.

Hewitt said: "The fear that I have is that with the Conservatives, the minimum wage would be left to wither away.

"They don't believe in it. There is no guarantee the minimum wage would ever rise under a Conservative government."