Labour frontbencher fails to deny claims party has watered down commitment to workers’ rights
A Labour frontbencher has failed to deny claims the party has watered down its key commitment to strengthen workers’ rights.
The Financial Times alleged leader Sir Keir Starmer has scaled back this commitment in an attempt to appease corporate backers, including by diluting his pledge to bolster the rights of gig workers.
This would mean rolling back on Labour’s promise to create a single category of “worker” for all those who are not self-employed, a change that was intended to secure “rights and protections” for all working people.
Asked about these reports on Sky News, the shadow schools minister Stephen Morgan said he could not comment.
Instead, he stressed Labour will be “pro-worker and pro-business”, adding that more detail will be set out in the party’s manifesto ahead of the upcoming general election.
He said: “Labour set out its five national missions. That has been approved by our national policy forum in July.
“Obviously we will set out more detail in our manifesto, but the Labour Party can be pro-worker and pro-business.
“We have got a really good relationship with business now, we can be trusted to run our economy and to run our country, and we have got a set of policies which are pro-worker too.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer
The FT claims the pledge was diluted at Labour’s national policy forum in Nottingham last month, citing people familiar with the matter and related texts seen by the newspaper.
The document, agreed in July, will reportedly be published ahead of Labour’s Party Conference in October.
But extracts seen by the newspaper allegedly show how Labour has reined in its 2021 promise to create a single status of “worker” for all but the self-employed.
The policy will reportedly not be introduced immediately, and instead Labour will consult on the proposal and consider how this “simpler framework” could “properly capture the breadth of employment relationships in the UK”.
However, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has since insisted Labour remains committed to reforming workers’ rights.
She said: “Labour’s New Deal for Working People will be the biggest levelling-up of workers’ rights in decades – providing security, treating workers fairly, and paying a decent wage.
“I’m proud that we developed our comprehensive New Deal together with Labour’s affiliated unions. Far from watering it down, we will now set out in detail how we will implement it and tackle the Tories’ scaremongering.”
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Separately, the Conservative Campaign Headquarters has reportedly drawn up a list of 20 Labour policy proposals it considers “anti-business” – including the pledge allegedly watered down last month.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch
It is anticipated that Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch will challenge these plans in the coming months.
But Labour has since hit back, telling Sky News this criticism is “desperate and inaccurate”.
A source added: “Last month’s National Policy Forum endorsed Keir Starmer’s programme, his five missions for government, and the fiscal rules that he and Rachel Reeves have set out.
“This is a serious, credible and ambitious policy programme that lays the groundwork for an election-winning manifesto and a mission-driven Labour government that will build a better Britain. That includes growing a strong economy by levelling-up workers’ rights and making work pay. There are no unfunded spending commitments in the document.”
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Politics
Sir Keir Starmer vows to defend budget decisions ‘all day long’ as farmers slam ‘disrespectful’ PM
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will defend the decisions made in the budget “all day long” amid anger from farmers over inheritance tax changes.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last month in her key speech that from April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40% applied to other land and property.
The announcement has sparked anger among farmers who argue this will mean higher food prices, lower food production and having to sell off land to pay for the tax.
Sir Keir defended the budget as he gave his first speech as prime minister at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales, where farmers have been holding a tractor protest outside.
Sir Keir admitted: “We’ve taken some extremely tough decisions on tax.”
He said: “I will defend facing up to the harsh light of fiscal reality. I will defend the tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy.
“And I will defend protecting the payslips of working people, fixing the foundations of our economy, and investing in the future of Britain and the future of Wales. Finally, turning the page on austerity once and for all.”
He also said the budget allocation for Wales was a “record figure” – some £21bn for next year – an extra £1.7bn through the Barnett Formula, as he hailed a “path of change” with Labour governments in Wales and Westminster.
And he confirmed a £160m investment zone in Wrexham and Flintshire will be going live in 2025.
‘PM should have addressed the protesters’
Among the hundreds of farmers demonstrating was Gareth Wyn Jones, who told Sky News it was “disrespectful” that the prime minister did not mention farmers in his speech.
He said “so many people have come here to air their frustrations. He (Starmer) had an opportunity to address the crowd. Even if he was booed he should have been man enough to come out and talk to the people”.
He said farmers planned to deliver Sir Keir a letter which begins with “‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
Farmers’ tractor protest outside the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales
Mr Wyn Jones told Sky News the government was “destroying” an industry that was already struggling.
“They’re destroying an industry that’s already on its knees and struggling, absolutely struggling, mentally, emotionally and physically. We need government support not more hindrance so we can produce food to feed the nation.”
He said inheritance tax changes will result in farmers increasing the price of food: “The poorer people in society aren’t going to be able to afford good, healthy, nutritious British food, so we have to push this to government for them to understand that enough is enough, the farmers can’t take any more of what they’re throwing at us.”
Mr Wyn Jones disputed the government’s estimation that only 500 farming estates in the UK will be affected by the inheritance tax changes.
“Look, a lot of farmers in this country are in their 70s and 80s, they haven’t handed their farms down because that’s the way it’s always been, they’ve always known there was never going to be inheritance tax.”
On Friday, Sir Keir addressed farmers’ concerns, saying: “I know some farmers are anxious about the inheritance tax rules that we brought in two weeks ago.
“What I would say about that is, once you add the £1m for the farmland to the £1m that is exempt for your spouse, for most couples with a farm wanting to hand on to their children, it’s £3m before anybody pays a penny in inheritance tax.”
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Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones
Ministers said the move will not affect small farms and is aimed at targeting wealthy landowners who buy up farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax.
But analysis this week said a typical family farm would have to put 159% of annual profits into paying the new inheritance tax every year for a decade and could have to sell 20% of their land.
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The Country and Land Business Association (CLA), which represents owners of rural land, property and businesses in England and Wales, found a typical 200-acre farm owned by one person with an expected profit of £27,300 would face a £435,000 inheritance tax bill.
The plan says families can spread the inheritance tax payments over 10 years, but the CLA found this would require an average farm to allocate 159% of its profits each year for a decade.
To pay that, successors could be forced to sell 20% of their land, the analysis found.
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