Rayner’s (un)Employment Rights Bill suffered a major defeat in the Lord last night. Peers voted in favour of Tory amendments to scrap day-one workers rights, 50% turnout for strike ballots and stringent protections for casual workers. The bill is set to go back to the Commons on 8 December…
Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith said:
“Labour’s Unemployment Bill has provoked widespread alarm among industry leaders and across the political divide. This latest defeat for the government emphasises just how damaging the Bill could be for businesses and for the jobs market. Labour should show some backbone, stand up to the trade union bully boys, back British businesses and compromise on this awful Bill.”
Reeves’ raid on businesses last year already sent the cost per worker up by £800. If the bill passes unamended, it will make it £154 more expensive a year to employ a single person. Thanks Rayner…
Andy Haldane, Burnham’s recent adviser on the economy who has not taken up a No10 job, told Andrew Marr on LBC:
“The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos…
imposing windfall taxes on oil & gas or on banks or upping capital gains tax would […] repeat the mistake that Rachel made […] The Achilles heel, the fiscal Achilles heel of this government thus far has been its unwillingness and/or inability to cut public spending.”