Labour’s Employment Rights Bill has already bombed with businesses and workers alike. Even the government’s own analysis admits the bill will saddle businesses with an initial £5 billion in extra costs. Their plan to “make work pay” is looking like a plan to make workers pay…
A new impact assessment by the Regulatory Policy Committee, which provides state-funded independent oversight of regulatory proposals, has now declared the evidence presented for the entire bill “not fit for purpose.” An impact assessment of an impact assessment…
The RPC’s report argues there is little evidence for the problems it’s trying to fix and attacks the “insufficient evidence to justify market failure or other rationales.” It also lays out how businesses will lose a net present value of £7.4 billion over ten years. The main losses being:
The RPC judges the evidence for eight of the bill’s core policies – flexible working, fair pay agreements, day one unfair dismissal rights, and repealing of the Strikes MSL Act 2023 and Trade Union Act 2016 – to be not fit for purpose. It says “the issues are mainly around lack of evidence to support the problem being addressed” and instructs the government to “undertake labour market and broader macroeconomic analysis, to understand the overall impact on employment, wages and output, and particularly, the pass-through of employer costs to employees.” Try again…
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”