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The CBI has criticised the government's pledge to continue raising the national minimum wage saying it will undermine the role of the Low Pay Commission.

In his speech to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton yesterday, Gordon Brown announced he would ensure the national minimum wage was raised for at least the next five years.

But John Cridland, deputy director-general of the employer group CBI, said: "The Low Pay Commission was set up as an independent body to advise the government on the level of the minimum wage. There is a danger of undermining its standing if politicians make promises about what will happen to the minimum wage in future.

"Ministers would not make promises about interest rates when they are set by an independent committee at the Bank of England, so it is troubling when they appear to treat the minimum wage in a different way."