A FORMER shadow minister has fired a thinly-veiled warning to Keir Starmer over reports he will ditch commitments to workers’ rights if Labour win power next year.
Sam Tarry, who Starmer sacked as junior shadow transport minister last year, said the party’s commitment to enhancing protections for workers was vital to winning both the next election and the expected by-election in Rutherglen.
It comes after a report in the Financial Times said the Labour leader was prepared to tear up commitments on workers’ rights in an effort to blunt Tory attacks on the party and woo businesses.
The paper reported it had seen evidence pledges to enhance the rights of gig economy workers had been scrapped at a contentious meeting of the party’s national policy meeting last month.
Tarry, the MP for Ilford South, said: “Labour's plans to strengthen workers' rights are incredibly popular with the electorate and will help the party win the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election and the subsequent General Election.
“Backing workers means backing Britain, putting working families first – delivering Labour’s New Deal in the first 100 days of government is the bedrock of rebuilding our broken country, and our next manifesto.”
And Labour have found themselves under fresh fire after deputy leader Angela Rayner ruled out devolving employment law to the Scottish Parliament.
It undermines a commitment previously made by Anas Sarwar in an interview with the Daily Record, where he said: “We have set out in numerous manifestos that we believe that there should be a UK floor when it comes to employment law, and that we should have the ability to lift from that floor in different parts of the UK.”
David Linden (below), the SNP’s social justice spokesperson, said the change in tact was “scandalous”.
He said: “With yet another desperate U-turn from Sir Keir Starmer, this time one that will have a drastic effect on the rights of Scottish workers, it begs the question – what do Labour actually stand for?
“Once again, Anas Sarwar has shown his words to be utterly meaningless and once again he’s folded like a deck chair as his London bosses move to water down commitments on workers’ rights.
“Labour, a party grown out of the trade union movement, are now seriously suggesting the rights of Scottish workers remain in the hands of the Tories in Westminster – rather than in those of a progressive government in Edinburgh.
“That is scandalous and shows how little there is to separate Starmer’s Labour Party from Sunak’s Tories.
“The SNP will always stand up for workers' rights, but continued Westminster control is directly resulting in Scottish workers being denied the dignity of basic working practises in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. "Scotland needs the full powers of independence to protect workers’ rights, escape Westminster control and build a fair and prosperous economy for all.”
