Anti-strikes bill branded ‘shoddy and unworkable’ after ‘damning’ watchdog assessment
The anti-strikes bill has been branded “shoddy and unworkable” after an independent watchdog ruled the impact assessment of the policy was “not fit for purpose”.
The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), a panel that analyses new laws, said ministers have not considered all the effects of its controversial Minimum Service Levels Bill and has not backed up its assumptions with evidence.
The legislation seeks to ensure a legally mandated level of service across key sectors like the NHS, and will allow bosses to fire employees who ignore notices ordering them to work on strike days.
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Unions and Labour fiercely oppose the bill, which they say is an attack on the right to strike.
The legislation has passed through the Commons and is now facing scrutiny in the House of Lords.
The RPC criticised ministers for not submitting the impact assessment (IA) of the legislation before it was debated by MPs – as is required under the government’s “own policy for timely submission”.
The watchdog said it received the assessment several weeks later and what was produced was not good enough – resulting in a “red rating”.
“The RPC found that the IA is not-fit-for-purpose and, therefore red rated,” it said.
The body said the rating “reflects the insufficient assessment of the impacts of the bill on small and micro-businesses”.
Labour called it a “damning judgement by independent experts on the government’s ‘Sacking Nurses’ Bill”.
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Deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Tory ministers have failed utterly to do due diligence on this shoddy, unworkable policy, breaking their own rules and failing to provide evidence for their claims.
“Clearly the government is trying to hide the severe and disproportionate impacts its legislation will have on small businesses.
“It’s little wonder they’re trying to rush this legislation through parliament because not one bit of it stands up to scrutiny. This is a complete dereliction of ministerial duty.”
Ministers ‘should drop bill entirely’
Pat Cullen, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: “This is a damning assessment of the government’s attempt to stifle the rights of workers. The independent committee is saying it is not fit for purpose and should essentially go ‘back to the drawing board’.
“The government is ploughing ahead with an ill thought through bill that allows for nursing staff to be sacked for taking otherwise lawful strike action.
“Ministers would be better listening to the mounting opposition, drop the bill entirely and work with unions to resolve these disputes.”
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The government has insisted the legislation – being tabled at a time of widespread action across the public sector – hits the right balance between the right to strike and ensuring public safety during walkouts.
The RPC noted that while work notices have been proposed to stop employees from striking to ensure minimum service levels, the IA “does not consider these impacts in any detail”.
It said the government “must ensure that all direct business impacts (including those to trade unions) have been clearly identified and discussed” and called the cost-benefit analysis of the policy “weak”.
A Downing Street spokesperson said further impact assessments on the bill will be published by the government.
After a summer dominated by criticism over the small boats crisis and asylum hotels, Labour says it’s planning to overhaul the “broken” asylum system.
As MPs return to Westminster today, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will speak about the government’s success in tackling people smugglers and plans for border security reform.
August saw the lowest number of Channel crossings since 2019 – but the last year has the most on record. Pic: Reuters
Labour hopes that the raft of changes being proposed will contribute to ending the use of asylum hotels, an issue which has led to widespread protests over the summer.
Ms Cooper will set out planned changes to the refugee family reunion process to give “greater fairness and balance”, and speak to the government’s promise to “smash the gangs” behind English Channel crossings.
National Crime Agency (NCA) figures show record levels of disruption of immigration crime networks in 2024/25. Officials believe this contributed to the lowest number of boats crossing the Channel in August since 2019.
But, despite the 3,567 arrivals in August being the lowest since 2021, when looking across the whole of 2025, the figure of 29,003 is the highest on record for this point in a year.
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Labour says actions to strengthen border security, increase returns and overhaul the asylum system, will result in “putting much stronger foundations in place so we can fix the chaos we inherited and end costly asylum hotels”.
In a message to Reform UK, which has promised mass deportations, and the Tories, who want to revive the Rwanda scheme, Ms Cooper will say: “These are complex challenges, and they require sustainable and workable solutions, not fantasy promises which can’t be delivered.”
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The town at boiling point over migration
While the home secretary will look back at the UK’s “proud record of giving sanctuary to those fleeing persecution”, she will argue the system “needs to be properly controlled and managed, so the rules are respected and enforced, and so governments, not criminal gangs, decide who comes to the UK”.
She will also give further details around measures announced over the summer, including the UK’s landmark returns deal with France, and update MPs on reforms to the asylum appeals process.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp dismissed Ms Cooper’s intervention as a “desperate distraction tactic”, reiterating record levels of illegal Channel crossings, the rise in the use of asylum hotels and the highest number of asylum claims in history in Labour’s first year.
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Sir Keir Starmer too, says he intends to “deliver change,” using a column in Monday’s Mirror to criticise the Tories and Reform UK for whipping up migrant hatred.
And the prime minister isn’t the only one to hit out at Reform UK’s flagship immigration plan, with the Archbishop of York accusing it of being an “isolationist, short-term kneejerk” approach, with no “long-term solutions”.
In response, Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips the archbishop was “wrong” in his criticism.
Anti-asylum demonstrators in Epping, Essex. Pic: PA
Mr Tice, who is the MP for Boston and Skegness, said he was a Christian who “enjoys” the church – but that the “role of the archbishop is not actually to interfere with international migration policies”.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal will hand down its full written judgment in the Bell Hotel case today, which saw Epping Forest District Council fail in an attempt to stop asylum seekers from being put up there.
Protests continued in Epping on Sunday night, with police arresting three people.
An anti-asylum demonstration also took place in Canary Wharf on Sunday, which saw a police officer punched in the face and in a separate incident, a child potentially affected by synthetic pepper spray.
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