Centre for London is an “independent” think tank run by Ben Rogers, a former adviser to Gordon Brown and fellow at Labour wonk shop IPPR. This morning they are launching a “ground-breaking” report criticising low pay, authored by Brown treasury minister and expenses trougher Kitty Ussher, calling for a higher minimum wage in London than for the rest of the country. Indeed, they say this is a policy they employ themselves. According to their website, “internships at Centre for London are paid at the London Living Wage”. 

That is not what one former employee says. An ex-staffer at Centre for London, who wishes to remain unnamed, tells Guido that the think tank has itself regularly used unpaid staff and that many members of its current team started out there in jobs without pay. He says “my jaw dropped” when he saw today’s report attacking low pay, claiming that when he was there a “we will pay you if you raise the money” policy was in place. A spokesperson for Centre of London insists that they have always paid their staff. Surely a wonk shop doubling as a rehab clinic for failed Brown era apparatchiks would never say one thing then do the other…