There’s no-one Keir Starmer’s Labour won’t throw under the bus – as it’s now going to screw workers, too

Labour leader Keir Starmer biting his lip workers


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Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has reportedly now watered down its pledges around workers’ rights, in a move that’s angered many. This latest news begs the question: just who does Labour represent now? The answer is clear. Starmer’s party represents the rich and powerful.

Starmer’s Labour: the party of workers, apparently

The Financial Times (FT) reported on Labour’s pledges around workers rights. It noted that it had seen “text” relating to a meeting on the issue of the party’s “national policy forum in Nottingham last month”. The FT noted that:

Labour has diluted its 2021 pledge to create a single status of “worker” for all but the genuinely self-employed, regardless of sector, wage or contract type. The policy was aimed at guaranteeing “basic rights and protections” for all workers, including those in the gig economy.

Instead of introducing the policy immediately, Labour has agreed it would consult on the proposal in government, considering how “a simpler framework” that differentiates between workers and the genuinely self-employed “could properly capture the breadth of employment relationships in the UK” and ensure workers can still “benefit from flexible working where they choose to do so”.

Then, the FT said that:

Labour also clarified that its previously announced plans to introduce “basic individual rights from day one for all workers”, including sick pay, parental leave and protection against unfair dismissal, will “not prevent . . . probationary periods with fair and transparent rules and processes.”

People on Twitter were unimpressed:

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Meanwhile, deputy leader Angela Rayner got “on the front foot” by sharing Labour’s green paper on workers’ rights:

However, the document doesn’t refute the FT‘s claims. For example, the green paper still includes the single status of worker pledge – but this doesn’t mean Labour won’t consult on it first, as the FT claims.

It’s a similar story with employers giving workers rights like sick pay from day one. The FT claims that Labour will put this in place, but still allow bosses to put workers on trial periods where they can be sacked. The document doesn’t refute this, either – it just doesn’t mention it.

So, just who is left for Labour to represent?

Labour: pro-business and pro-rich people, anti-everyone else

Previously, the party announced that if it was in government:

So, that’s everyone who needs the NHS, benefit claimants, refugees, and the planet all thrown under the bus.

You’d be forgiven for asking ‘What’s the point in Labour?’. Former Green Party leader Natalie Bennett did:

Well, as the Canary previously wrote:

Starmer wants us to know that come the next election, we won’t find anything in his manifesto that a Tory would object to. In other words, it will be a Tory Manifesto in everything but name. That is unless Starmer does the one thing Tony Blair never had the balls to do and rebrands Labour the ‘New Conservative Party’

The Tories’ cataclysmic failure proves Labour needs to be more like the Tories

So, all that’s left of Labour is a pro-business, pro-rich people husk of a party. From workers, to non-working people, via the NHS, climate, and planet – Labour’s shift to the centre right has thrown them all under the bus. We don’t know about you, but many of us won’t be holding our nose and voting for Starmer’s party at the next election. We’ll either be spoiling our ballots, or voting Green.

Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

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  • Show Comments

    2. As every Marxist knows, the class enemy of every worker is the employer – businesses, as Labour likes to call them. And as every Christian knows – although many choose to forget – one cannot serve two masters: it is either God or Mammon (Mammon in the New Testament of the Bible is commonly thought to mean money, material wealth, or any entity that promises wealth, and is associated with the greedy pursuit of gain.). Labour has chosen Mammon.

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    3. Backing away from rights at work and distancing itself from the unions has to be expected from this Labour front bench. The only thing that is surprising is the extent to which Angela Rayner has been prepared to ditch the principles and values she used to proclaim.

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