Dave the Gnome:
Didn't your illustrious leader just say that high wages were more important than people's lives?

No, he didn't. Much as some people seem to love misquoting him, The Guardian seems to quote his actual words: In a BBC interview on Friday before the Conservative party conference, the prime minister was challenged that there was no measure for determining whether those who were more deprived were really catching up with those who were better off under the policy.

Johnson replied: “I’ve given you the most important metric – never mind life expectancy, never mind cancer outcomes – look at wage growth.

So he was not saying wage growth was more important, only that it was a better 'metric' (measure) of levelling up!