The minimum wage is failing British workers and needs to be reformed, according to the man who introduced it in 1999.

Low Pay Commission founding chairman Sir George Bain said the desired "ripple effect" of increasing wages upward had not worked, even though the national minimum wage had lifted thousands out of extremely low pay.

Mr Bain led a review on the national minimum wage published yesterday, which recommended the government set an explicit ambition to reduce the number of low paid workers.