Boris Johnson has called for a rise in the minimum wage, straying beyond the boundaries of his Foreign Office brief ahead of Conservative conference.
The Foreign Secretary said the existing £7.50 an hour level - set to rise to £9 by 2020 - is "not enough" and that people deserved more.
He also waded into the row over public sector pay, saying the UK could fund a rise for some workers by making others redundant, so reducing the overall number of civil servants to make savings.
It is the latest high profile intervention from the Foreign Secretary, who has been accused of jockeying for position to launch a leadership bid in recent weeks.
In an interview with The Sun he said: "I want people to be paid more.
"People get up unbelievably early and they work unbelievably hard, they deserve to be properly paid."
With unions threatening to strike over public sector pay, Mr Johnson suggested you could increase the wages of one group of people by laying other people off.
He said: "You can pay people more, but shrink your wages bill."
It comes after Mr Johnson also used his interview with The Sun to clearly set out his Brexit redlines, which constrain Ms May's position and further strain tensions with other ministers like Philip Hammond and Ruth Davidson seeking a more jobs and economy focussed Brexit.
With the Foreign Secretary recently having hailed Britain's "glorious" future outside the EU, Ms Davidson used an interview with The Times to call for serious people to take charge of Brexit.
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