MP George Galloway is calling for a zero tolerance policy on firms which pay below the minimum wage.

The Bradford West Respect MP has submitted a parliamentary motion which says an estimated 300,000 people are paid less than they should be, but in the last four years only two firms have been prosecuted.

The motion says: “That this House views with concern that only two employers in four years have been prosecuted for paying below the minimum wage; understands that HMRC has investigated 10,777 firms since 2009, collected £15.8m in arrears and imposed £2.1m in fines; points out that the unit which pursues firms cost £8m a year to run whereas it collects just £4m a year in arrears; notes that an estimated 300,000 people in the UK are earning less than the minimum; and demands a zero tolerance policy so that all companies discovered to be paying below the minimum wage are named and shamed and fines are increased by at least ten times the present paltry ceiling of £5,000.”