Scores of stewards staffing the Labour party conference are being paid a third of the level of the national minimum wage, BBC News Online can exclusively reveal.

The stewards work 10-hour shifts every day of the conference and get paid just £12.50. They also receive help paying their hotel bills, meals and travelling expenses.

The revelation has infuriated some Labour MPs who believe the workers are being exploited by the same party which boasts about introducing the £3.60 an hour minimum wage.

All the stewards are volunteers and insist they do the job simply for love and out of loyalty to the party. They see the £1.25 "wage" as a bonus.

Taken leave

They include pensioners, students, the unemployed and people who have taken leave from their full-time jobs to attend the conference.

There is no legal requirement for the stewards to be paid the wage and none of them have complained about the money they receive.

One said: "I must be mad doing this. It's a long day - but I would happily do it for nothing for the party and it's quite good fun."

But one senior Labour backbencher who asked not to be named said he was disgusted at the amount being paid.

"These people may be willing volunteers but they should still at least be paid the minimum wage. It makes the party look as if it is ignoring its own laws."

Cost jobs

Tony Blair: Boasted of minimum wage in conference speech

Prime Minister Tony Blair devoted a part of his conference speech to the minimum wage and attacking the Tories for refusing to back it.

"What did they say about the minimum wage? The same as they said right through this century.

"They tried the employment argument - it would cost jobs. They tried the business argument - it would make them bankrupt. They then used the economic argument - it would cause inflation.

"They then resorted to the selfish argument - businesses wouldn't want to pay it.

"Well, businesses are paying it. Inflation is low. Unemployment is falling. There are one million job vacancies in the country.

"And two million people have had a pay rise because we believe they are worth more than poverty pay," he said.

But some delegates at the conference, while accepting the party could not afford to pay the stewards the full minimum wage, believe the system gives the party a bad image.