LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer once again refused to put a figure on what “fair pay” for care workers means today, as he faced a grilling from trade unionists.

Asked by a GMB member at the general union’s annual congress what he thought minimum pay across the austerity-hit essential sector should be, Sir Keir only promised negotiations, saying: “You will know what’s right for your members.”

The ambiguous response, which came almost two minutes after Jeremy Corbyn’s increasingly right-wing successor began his long-winded answer by stressing his “respect” for the workforce, was met with frustration by some in the Brighton Centre.

The Morning Star heard one member say “£15 — that’s the answer,” a reference to calls endorsed by delegates on Monday to fully nationalise the desperately understaffed sector and introduce a £15 an hour minimum wage.

Sir Keir appeared to back the demand when he stood alongside striking McDonald’s workers as shadow Brexit secretary in 2019, but since becoming party leader the following year he has largely abandoned the left-wing pledges he was elected on.

After repeating his commitment to negotiating a new national minimum wage floor across social care today, the Holborn and St Pancras MP said: “As to the rate of pay, you will be negotiating that around the table.

“You will know what you think is right in, whatever year it is, 2024, maybe 2025. And once that’s done, the agreement will then be binding for all care workers.”

In response to another question from an Asda worker threatened with fire and rehire at the major supermarket chain, Sir Keir recommitted a future Labour government to banning the widely condemned practice.