Way of theworld Michael Deacon

Many of Britain’s current woes stem from the same problem. In numerous vital industries we’ve got a huge number of job vacancies – but can’t get anyone to fill them. Now, however, a Conservative peer has proposed a simple solution: get pensioners back to work.

Speaking on LBC radio, Lord Moylan – who was elevated to the Upper House in 2020 – argued that “people can be drawn out of retirement” to fill job vacancies. “If you offer people attractive jobs at attractive rates,” he said confidently, “lots of people will come out of retirement. Of course they will. That’s what they want to do.”

I must admit to being somewhat taken aback by His Lordship’s assertion. I for one was unaware of this tremendous groundswell of elderly people begging to be liberated from the misery of leisure so that they can return to the office, factory or building site. “Oh for pity’s sake, Marjorie, I’m so bored with all these blasted Mediterranean cruise holidays. I’m going to retrain as a long-distance lorry driver. That’s a much better way to see the world. Assuming you ever get out of Kent, anyway.”

But even if Britain’s pensioners are indeed gagging to get back to work, I fear there may be a flaw in His Lordship’s plan. After all, Britain’s greatest shortages of staff are in health and social care. According to reports, the NHS currently has an eye-popping 105,000 vacancies – while the social care sector has an astonishing 150,000. And by far the people most in need of health and social care are pensioners. Presumably, therefore, the solution is for pensioners to come out of retirement in order to care for themselves. Perform their own hip ops, carry out their own prostate examinations, empty their own bedpans. It’s certainly an innovative idea. But I’m not sure how popular it would be. Happily, however, there is some more suitable work we could ask the old to do. Because, in Britain, there is one major employer that pays well, does not demand arduous physical labour, and has a workforce drawn almost solely from the ranks of the elderly. It’s the House of Lords. And right now, it seems to me, it urgently needs an injection of new talent.

There are some perfectly good reasons not to make Rishi Sunak prime minister. His opponents, however, have chosen to put forward a very silly reason instead. They’re suggesting that Tories shouldn’t vote for Mr Sunak because he’s rich.

Yesterday Nadine Dorries – a vocal supporter of Liz Truss – approvingly noted that her favoured candidate “will be travelling the country wearing earrings which cost circa £4.50 from Claire’s Accessories”. In sharp contrast, she observed, Mr Sunak had visited Teesside “in Prada shoes worth £450” and a “£3,500 bespoke suit”.

In my view, this comment prompts a number of intriguing questions. For example: if Mrs Dorries thinks that senior ministers should wear earrings that cost about £4.50, why did she once tell an interviewer that “there are things I will not compromise on, like my £6,000 diamond earrings”?

The biggest question, however, is this. Why would a Tory minister, of all people, wish to stoke public resentment of the rich and successful?

We all know there’s a cost of living crisis. But surely we still expect an aspiring prime minister to dress as smartly as he can. Would Mr Sunak seem more “in touch” if he greeted world leaders in a £35 suit from the Burton sale? Or perhaps a pair of Crocs, tracksuit bottoms and a 10-year-old West Ham away shirt?

It’s true that Mr Sunak married a rich heiress. But that’s no reason for Tories to reject him, because before entering politics he was a successful financier, so he would have been rich anyway, thanks to his own efforts. It’s also true that he went to a posh school. But that’s no reason for Tories to reject him, because he’s aiming to succeed a man who went to an even posher one.

In any case, Mr Sunak has already tried pretending to be “normal” – and was loudly mocked for it. To publicise his 5p cut to fuel duty in March, he circulated a photograph of himself at a Sainsbury’s petrol pump, filling up a distinctly modest-looking hatchback. To the surprise of no one, the car turned out to belong not to Mr Sunak, but to a Sainsbury’s employee. Mr Sunak, it was reported, actually owns a Lexus, a Range Rover and a BMW.

Anyway, the salary for PM is £164,000 – more than five times the UK average. So whoever wins will automatically be “out of touch” with ordinary people and their struggle to pay the bills. There’s no way to avoid it.

Still, how odd to see a Tory attack a man for having lots of money. Despite Labour’s crushing defeat in 2019, Jeremy Corbyn insisted that he’d “won the argument”. Maybe he was right.