Angela Rayner has issued an angry call to MPs to sit “through the night” to stop hereditary peers delaying her flagship employment rights bill.

In an outburst at the start of the latest “ping pong” between the Lords and Commons, she said: “What’s wrong with protecting people from unfair dismissal?”

The former deputy prime minister hit out at the delaying tactics of the House of Lords, with the clock ticking only days before parliament’s Christmas recess.

The bill now goes back to the Lords on Tuesday, when ministers hope peers will drop their opposition so the bill can receive royal assent by the time parliament rises on Thursday.

Ms Rayner’s attack on hereditary peers followed a government defeat in the Lords by 24 votes last week, just days before Sir Keir Starmer created 25 new Labour peers.

“What message does this send to the British public, when 33 hereditary peers have tried to defeat the government by 24 votes on a manifesto promise on sick pay, for example, which will miss the deadline for April for some of the lowest earners from some of the wealthiest?” she declared.

“Shouldn’t we get on, go through the night if we have to, and get this bill passed?”

And employment minister Kate Dearden told MPs: “We have been in ping pong for far too long, and further delay is not in anyone’s best interest.”

At the end of an hour-long debate, MPs voted by 311 votes to 96, a majority of 215, to remove a cap on unfair dismissal compensation, overturning a vote in the Lords last week.

In its attempts to get the bill through the Lords, ministers have abandoned day one protection against unfair dismissal and, after a deal with trade unions, replaced it with a six-month qualifying period.

But at the same time the government introduced an 11th hour measure to scrap compensation caps for unfair dismissal, which is currently 52 weeks’ pay or £118,223, whichever is lower.

Read more: Starmer insists budget leaks and leadership speculation did not come from him

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, who has led Tory opposition to the bill, attacked the removal of a cap.

“It wasn’t in the manifesto, it wasn’t in the bill, it wasn’t in the impact assessment,” he protested.

Earlier, in a boost for the government, six business groups urged peers to back down and end the parliamentary “ping pong” between the Commons and the Lords.

The groups, including the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC), fear the six-month unfair dismissal compromise agreed with the unions could be at risk.

“To avoid losing the six-month qualifying period, we therefore believe that now is the time for parliament to pass the bill,” they urged in a letter to Business Secretary Peter Kyle.

Mr Kyle said “all parties… have made difficult but necessary compromises to bring this bill forward” and urged “everyone” to recognise business groups and trade unions want it passed “without further delay”.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has dismissed cryptocurrency cases under the Trump administration at a significantly higher rate than those involving other aspects of securities laws. 

According to a Sunday report from The New York Times, since US President Donald Trump took office in January, the SEC has paused, dropped investigations related to or dismissed about 60% of cases involving companies and projects in the cryptocurrency industry. The report cited high-profile cases, including the SEC’s lawsuits against Ripple Labs and Binance, adding that the financial regulator was “no longer actively pursuing a single case against a firm with known Trump ties.”

The SEC told The New York Times that political favoritism had “nothing to do” with its crypto enforcement strategy, and the shift to dismiss investigations and cases was for legal and policy reasons. The news outlet also noted that it had found no evidence suggesting that Trump had pressured the agency to drop investigations or cases.

“[T]he idea that the regulatory pivot on crypto over the last year is somehow because of the president’s personal interest, and not because the prior regulatory posture was absolutely insane,” said Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, in response to The New York Times report. ”[It] is dishonest framing that ignores 4 years of direct attacks by the actual partisans.”

Related: US SEC’s Crenshaw takes aim at crypto in final weeks at agency

Trump family entities have significantly expanded their involvement in the digital asset industry in 2025, with entities linked to the president or his family participating in several cryptocurrency-related projects, including World Liberty Financial, Trump’s memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP) and the president’s sons’ Bitcoin (BTC) mining venture, American Bitcoin. 

Remaining Democratic SEC commissioner set to leave agency in weeks

Though the SEC’s Paul Atkins will likely remain chair of the commission for years, the agency is set to lose the final Democratic member on its leadership after her term expired in 2024.

In January, Caroline Crenshaw is expected to depart the SEC, having served 18 months beyond the expiration of her initial term. At the time of publication, Trump had not announced any potential replacements for Crenshaw or for the other empty Democratic seat at the regulatory agency.