Angela Rayner to accuse Tories of ‘levelling down’ country as she sets out Labour’s plan

Pay and housing will be at the heart of Labour’s “real-life” plans to level up the country, Angela Rayner is to announce.

The deputy Labour leader, who was appointed the new shadow levelling up, housing and communities secretary in a reshuffle last week, will address the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Liverpool on Tuesday.

In a nod to her new role, and long-standing affiliation with trade unions, she will draw on her own past in order to show “the real-world link between levelling up and unionised jobs”.

She will say: “As a young single mum, it was a Labour government that levelled the playing field for me. When I most needed it, a council house gave me my son a secure home instead of surfing sofas. That in turn meant I could go out and find the job that I built a life upon.

“The minimum wage meant I earned more. A local authority job gave me better skills at work, and a Sure Start centre better skills as a parent. And joining a union changed my whole life – and meant I could change other people’s lives too.”

Ms Rayner will say levelling up could still look like this but, under the Tories, it has become a “sham and a scam”.

She will stress that a Labour government will prioritise jobs, houses and communities to grow the economy – unlike the Tories who she will accuse of “levelling down” the country.

She will cite the party’s New Deal for Working People – a flagship policy which promises to bolster workers’ rights with protections against unfair dismissal, a ban on zero hour contracts, more flexible working and ending fire and rehire (when an employer fires an employee and offers them a new contract on new, often less-favourable terms).

Ms Rayner will also point to a Labour pledge to build more houses and stress “that means more council houses”.

She will say: “Everything I relied upon to improve my life and my community has instead been levelled down by the Tories. With housebuilding and wages plummeting across the whole country, this government’s version of levelling up is a sham – and a scam.”

It comes as a potential olive branch to union chiefs who have challenged the Labour leadership to be bolder with its economic policies if it wants to lead Britain out of decline.

The party’s moves to sideline left-wingers and a perceived lack of support in industrial disputes has also caused anger among the movement.

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During fringe events at the TUC Conference on Monday, unions pressed Labour not to dilute its commitment to strengthen workers’ rights and union rights.

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, said: “Labour should see the extension of workers rights as the vote winner it surely is.

“Rather than adopt an apologetic attitude, which sees these pledges as concessions to ‘the unions’, they should be enthusiastically promoting the New Deal for Working People as core to delivering the kind of change this country so badly needs.”

Labour will be bolstered by polling published by TUC, which it said showed huge support for Labour’s policies on workers rights, even among Conservative voters.

Ms Rayner was greeted with a warm reception at a fringe event hosted by unions on Monday night, where she vowed: “If I get the privilege to be the deputy prime minister of this country, I will not let you down.”

She said the New Deal for Working People would be enacted within 100 days of a Labour government, quipping: “Those who know me know I’m no angel but I get things done.”