CHANCELLOR George Osborne was accused yesterday of selling a pay-rise “lie” while allowing high-street chains to slash workers’ take-home pay.

Britain’s lowest-paid workers were supposed to see their pay increase from £6.70 to £7.20 on April 1 with the introduction of the so-called national living wage.

The measly rate excludes under-25s and is a full £1.05 lower than the real rate needed to buy basics worked out by the Living Wage Foundation.

But some of Britain’s best-known companies are compensating for the rise in the national minimum wage by slashing Sunday and overtime working bonuses.

The swindle was first exposed by a brave B&Q worker, who set up a petition that has now been signed by more than 130,000 people.

The negative publicity for the DIY giant shamed bosses into delaying the cut until 2018.

But the practice has also been exposed at supermarkets Tesco, Morrisons and even Waitrose, owned by the supposedly co-operative John Lewis Partnership.

Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh, who has been campaigning alongside B&Q workers, won a debate on the scandal in Parliament yesterday.

MPs heard about some of the B&Q workers who contacted her about contract changes being imposed on them to offset the firm paying the higher minimum wage.

One, a mother with young children, was set to lose 30 per cent of her monthly wages, equivalent to £2,000 a year.

She told her MP: “I am heartbroken that the company I have worked so hard for, done 16-hour shifts for, come in on days off for, and valued greatly, has treated me like this.”

Ms McDonagh, who was hospitalised after a fall at the weekend, was unable to attend, but her speech was delivered by fellow Labour MP Joan Ryan.

She said workers are being “sold a lie” by a government “giving with one hand” and allowing bosses to “take with the other.”

“If the Chancellor promised everyone a pay rise, then everyone should receive a pay rise,” she concluded.

“If he promised that the government was going to be radical on strengthening wages, then he needs to deliver that radical change.”