Lady Falkner, chair of the EHRC, says moves run the risk of positive discrimination
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
PMQs is about to start.
Continue reading...Category Archives: TUC
Britain’s biggest unions call for much closer UK-EU ties amid ‘volatile’ global economy
Exclusive: union umbrella body calls for new cooperation agreement ahead of Keir Starmer’s reset talks with Brussels
The UK should forge much closer ties with Europe amid an increasingly “volatile and unpredictable” global economy, Britain’s biggest trade unions will argue as they push for new workers’ rights across the continent.
In its first major intervention on Europe in five years, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) will call for a “much-needed” closer relationship with the EU, in a joint statement with European counterparts.
Continue reading...Second Labour MP suspended by Labour amid offensive messages on WhatsApp group – UK politics live
Burnley’s Oliver Ryan suspended as details emerge about Trigger Me Timbers group
Downing Street has announced a mini-reshuffle following the sacking of Andrew Gwynne as a health minister over the weekend.
Ashley Dalton is replacing Gwynne as a health minister. Dalton was a backbencher.
Forcing those whose asylum applications have been rejected or who have overstayed their visas on to planes has never been the most effective way to return people and never will be. Being punitive just scares people into hiding. They lose contact with the authorities, living a life on the margins.
Voluntary returns are far more effective, and the government should know this because it was the last Labour administration that commissioned independent agencies to run a voluntary programme that saw numbers increase. Building trust with refugee and migrant communities and treating people with dignity and humanity was far more successful than an enforcement approach.
Continue reading...Philp’s ‘patronising’ comment about Britons’ work ethic show Tories ‘out of touch’, TUC says – politics live
General secretary highlights ‘legacy of 14 years of falling living standards under the Tories’
In an article for the Guardian, the Labour MP Clive Lewis said Rachel Reeves’ growth speech this week means the party has abandoned its pre-election green commitments.
Here is an extract.
A growing suspicion looms that our government lacks a coherent governing philosophy or ideological compass beyond the vague pursuit of “growth”. But if growth at any cost is the mantra, the costs will soon become painfully clear. Why pledge to be clean and green, only to undermine that commitment with a Heathrow expansion promise six months later? Burning the furniture to stay warm doesn’t signal confidence – it reeks of panic.
Regardless of the motivation, Labour has crossed the Rubicon. Approving Heathrow expansion is an irreversible break with our pre-election pledges. In 2021, Reeves stood in front of the Labour party conference and declared that she would be the “first-ever green chancellor”. Now, Labour is accused of obstructing the climate and nature bill and abandoning its ambitious decarbonisation plans. The rapid turnaround is striking …
I do a bit. There are nine million working age adults who are not working. And as we compete globally with countries like, you know, South Korea, China, India, you know, we need a work ethic. We need everybody to be making a contribution. … we need to lift our game and to up our game.
Chris Philp was the architect of the Liz Truss budget which crashed the economy and sent family mortgages rocketing.
After the Conservatives’ economic failure left working people worse off, it takes some real brass neck for the Tory top team to tell the public that it’s really all their fault.
I was making the case that tax cuts…need to be accompanied by spending control or spending reductions … in order to show that the books are being balanced and to avoid the market reaction that we saw …
I made that case internally … but it wasn’t unfortunately listened to. I think had my suggestions been listened to a bit earlier, then there was a there’s a much higher chance that [the mini-budget] would have worked. And it’ll be always a matter of regret that those points weren’t taken on board.
Continue reading...One in six UK workers skipping meals to make ends meet, says TUC
Trade unions body finds 17% have skipped meal in past three months, and as many as 10% do so most days
As many as one in six workers in Britain are skipping meals to make ends meet as households remain under pressure from the higher cost of groceries, energy and other essentials.
Highlighting the impact of the cost of living crisis on working households, figures from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) showed 17% of full- or part-time workers had skipped a meal to reduce their spending in the past three months.
Continue reading...Labour’s workers’ rights plans can win over Tory and Reform voters, says TUC
Trade union leaders meet ministers for final talks on employment rights bill before unveiling on Thursday
Labour can use its overhaul of workers’ rights to win over disaffected Tory and Reform voters, the TUC has said, as the government prepares to introduce landmark legislation that will grant new rights to 7 million workers.
Trade union leaders met ministers on Tuesday for final discussions on the employment rights bill before its announcement on Thursday.
Continue reading...‘We need to hear about hope’: unions greet Keir Starmer TUC speech with mixed emotions
Enthusiasm for public sector pay awards tempered by concern over winter fuel payment cuts and job losses
“We’re hearing an awful lot about tough times: it’s like being in a Dickens novel. What comes after the tough times? We need to hear about hope.”
Onay Kasab, the national lead officer for the Unite trade union, was addressing a leftwing fringe meeting, but similar sentiments reverberated through the bars and coffee shops at this week’s TUC congress in Brighton.
Continue reading...‘Tough decisions’ needed, Starmer tells cabinet, as he defends changes to winter fuel payments – UK politics live
PM and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, defend move to restrict payment to only the poorest pensioners
Like the Telegraph (see 11.25am), the Times has also published a new article with a Tory endorsement for Kemi Badenoch, but this one is potentially more significant. Margaret Thatcher is no longer with us, but for Conservative party members she is still the one figure from the party’s recent past whose authority is more or less unquestioned and Peter Lilley has written an article claiming that Badenoch would be a worthy inheritor of her mantle. He says Thatcher was a scientist, and Badenoch is an engineering graduate. Like Thatcher, Badenoch is focused on facts, and what works, he says. He goes on:
Leadership candidates are under great pressure to make popular pledges, to abolish specific taxes or set a numerical limit on immigration. Kemi, rightly in my view, has refused to do so. Voters want lower taxes and much less immigration (as do I), but they have seen every glib promise broken. To convince them, a new leader will need to show first, that policies have been rigorously worked out in practical terms and second, that we truly believe in them rather than adopting them to win votes. As Margaret Thatcher said: “To carry conviction, you must have conviction.”
Conviction is the fruit of hard-nosed scepticism. Kemi’s approach is similar to Margaret Thatcher’s, for whom I once worked. When ministers took a policy to her which was in line with all her prejudices, expecting instant approval, she would tear into it, challenging every weakness. Only when satisfied that a policy was totally robust would she take it on board – but then she pursued it with unwavering conviction. Kemi is likewise willing to challenge, criticise and expose weaknesses, which does not endear her to everyone. But we cannot afford to go on adopting half-baked, unworkable policies.
We can rage at Labour’s actions, but the public won’t listen to our narrative – unless we have a leader who can communicate.
Kemi Badenoch is that person. She is blessed with that rare gift in politics: the X-factor that means she can not only communicate but achieve all important ‘cut-through’, so that the public actually notice.
Continue reading...More than a million British workers not having a single day of paid time off, says TUC
Employees have lost out on holiday pay worth £2bn, according to new trade union research
Workers across Britain have lost out on holiday pay worth £2bn, with more than a million people going without a single day of paid time off, according to new research.
With unions gathering in Brighton this weekend for the first TUC conference under a Labour administration for 15 years, the body revealed new research showing the extent to which workers are being denied holiday pay. Workers are entitled to 28 days paid leave for a typical five-day week.
Continue reading...Unions welcome scrapping of Tories’ ‘spiteful’ minimum service law
Senior figures praise repeal of law but privately some want full workers’ rights overhaul implemented without delay
Unions have welcomed the government’s move to formally scrap a “draconian” anti-strike law that would have ensured a minimum level of service during industrial action as the legislation had restricted workers’ rights.
The deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, and the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, have written to government departments with sectors that were most affected by the strikes to give a “clear message” the measures will be repealed and have urged all metro mayors to start engaging with local employers on the change.
Continue reading...Real terms average pay lower in most UK local authorities than in 2008, TUC finds
Union body says austerity is to blame for longest squeeze on wages since Napoleonic era with most ‘wage black spots’ in London
Pay packets are smaller than they were in 2008 in most local authority areas in the UK, according to analysis by the Trades Union Congress, which described the findings as a “damning indictment” of the Conservatives’ economic record.
The TUC, which includes 48 unions with more than five million members, said stagnating wages meant British workers were in the midst of the longest squeeze on wages since the Napoleonic era.
Continue reading...‘Daylight robbery’: two in five UK teachers work 26 hours for free each week
TUC survey finds teaching staff perform the most unpaid overtime of any profession, losing out on £15,000 a year each
Teaching unions have accused ministers of “daylight robbery” after a new survey by the Trades Union Congress revealed that teachers perform the most unpaid overtime of any profession.
The TUC survey – published to mark its Work Your Proper Hours Day on Friday – found that two out of five teaching staff in the UK worked 26 hours for free each week, for a combined 5.5m hours a year.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson government ‘always hoped’ Northern Ireland protocol would collapse – UK politics live
Lord Frost, Brexit negotiator for former PM, tells House of Lords that government never wanted ‘unsatisfactory’ protocol to work
Rayner says Labour will update trade union laws to make them fit for the 21st century.
The laws affecting union reps and officials do not take into account technological advancements, she says.
First, we will update regulations to outlaw the use of predictive technologies for blacklisting and safeguard against singling out workers for mistreatment or the sack without any evidence of human interaction.
Second, we will act to end the loophole that allows employers to pass the dirty work down to third party contractors, so that any third party found to be carrying out blacklisting can legally be held to account.
The Tories pushed through the 2016 Trade Union Act, preventing fair bargaining and holding back living standards.
And this year they gave us the minimum service levels bill [the Strikes Act] …
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak says he told China actions to undermine British democracy are ‘completely unacceptable’
Prime minister says he told Li Qiang, the Chinese prime minister, at G20 that Chinese interference with the work of parliament will ‘never be tolerated’
Simon Clarke, who was the levelling up secretary during the Liz Truss premiership, has defended the government’s decision not to explicitly label China as a threat. In posts on X, or Twitter as many of us still call it, he said:
There are legitimate reasons why it is difficult for ministers to say China is a threat – that’s the nature of international relations. What matters more than words is that our policy choices change to reflect the undoubted danger of China’s actions.
Here I think the Government’s record stands up pretty well. You have the soft power of our new Pacific trade bloc membership in the CPTPP (which notably does not include China) and you have the hard power of the new AUKUS alliance - itself a response to Chinese aggression.
Continue reading...UK’s net zero ambitions at risk after ‘disastrous’ offshore wind auction
Industry figures and the TUC warn of missed carbon reduction targets and lost jobs unless government boosts green investment
Fears are growing that existing offshore wind projects could be shelved, after industry insiders warned that “disastrous” handling by the government had created a big shortfall in future renewable energy.
Ministers revealed last week that no additional offshore windfarms will go ahead in the UK after the latest government auction. No bids were made in the auction, after the government ignored warnings that offshore schemes were no longer economically viable under the current system.
Continue reading...TUC urges Bank of England to halt ‘reckless’ interest rate increases
Unions say widespread job losses in recent months have left UK ‘teetering on the brink of recession’
The TUC has urged the Bank of England to call a halt to interest rate increases after warning that widespread job losses in recent months have left the UK “teetering on the brink of recession”.
Employment had fallen in more than half of Britain’s 20 industrial sectors in the three months to June, the union body said as it predicted a fresh increase in the cost of borrowing would put tens of thousands more livelihoods at risk.
Continue reading...UK strikes laws must conform with international rules, says UN agency
Intervention by International Labour Organization ‘hugely embarrassing’ for government, says TUC
The UN’s labour standards body has told the UK government it must make changes to highly controversial new strikes laws, which critics say threaten the fundamental rights of British workers.
The International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN agency, said the UK needed to “ensure that existing and prospective legislation is in conformity” with international rules on freedom of association, and added that the government must seek technical assistance from the agency’s experts.
Continue reading...Almost two-thirds of young women have been sexually harassed at work, says TUC
Most victims do not report it for fear of not being believed or damaging career prospects, says union body
Almost two in three young women have experienced sexual harassment, bullying or verbal abuse at work, according to a TUC poll.
However, most victims do not report it for fear of not being believed or of damaging their relationships at work or their career prospects, the TUC said.
Continue reading...Calls for stricter UK oversight of workplace AI amid fears for staff rights
Campaigners, unions and MPs raise concerns about surveillance and use of ‘management by algorithm’
Campaigners, trade unions and MPs are calling for stricter oversight of the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace, amid growing concerns about its effect on staff rights.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is holding a half-day conference on Tuesday to highlight the challenges of ensuring workers are treated fairly, as what it calls “management by algorithm” becomes increasingly prevalent.
Continue reading...‘Foolish’ anti-strike bill would stop some workers from ever striking, says Labour
Angela Rayner claims people in certain job categories could lose the right to withdraw their labour under Tory plans
Rishi Sunak’s new anti-strike laws would prevent certain job holders from ever being able to take industrial action, Labour’s deputy leader said during fiery exchanges in the House of Commons.
Angela Rayner promised on Monday that Labour would repeal the government’s anti-strikes bill, saying it was one of the most “indefensible and foolish pieces of legislation to come before this House in modern times”.
Continue reading...