Bar staff at Labour’s troubled summer festival Labour Live will work for free as volunteers and won’t be paid, Guido can reveal. Booze at ‘Labour’s Glastonbury’ – dubbed ‘JezFest’ – will be served by the trendy Workers Beer Company, who will run festival bars on the White Hart Lane Rec site. The Workers Beer Company states:

“All the frontline staff in Workers Beer Company bars are volunteers. They are from trade union branches, the Labour movement, grassroots organisations, community groups and charities. For every hour they work money is donated to the organisations, campaigns and charities they support. This was, and still is, a pioneering model that both raises funds and inspires people…”

The firm says volunteers working behind bars:

” Get well looked after with food, good facilities and a few free beers to quench your thirst afterwards…”

But they will not be paid a wage for their labour, despite the firm demanding they must be:

“Able to spend long periods of time on their feet, able to function well in very a busy and sometimes noisy environment. It can be demanding work and servers have to keep motivated and cheerful in challenging conditions.”

Corbyn claims Britain suffers from an “epidemic of low pay” and has been strongly critical of unpaid labour. He has argued for “decent jobs, jobs which pay a real living wage”. John McDonnell, who will speak at the Labour Live festival, says Labour “stands for fair pay and respect in the workplace”. He is currently leading campaigns in the food and drink sector including on staffing and pay practices at McDonald’s and TGI Fridays. Just yesterday the Leader’s Office slammed Chuka Umunna for advertising an unpaid internship.

A Labour spokesman told Guido:

“Workers Beer Company has run bars at music festivals and events including Glastonbury and the 2012 Olympics since 1986. Bar staff volunteer on the basis that a donation equivalent to the London Living Wage of £10.30 per hour is made to a charity or campaign of their choice. Millions of pounds have been raised for charities and campaign groups using this model.”

Chuka is more influential than we think…