Starmer says Labour would level up workers’ rights in way not attempted for decades – as it happened

Keir Starmer at Labour’s business event on Thursday in London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

5.07pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Keir Starmer has said Labour would “level up workers’ rights” in a way not seen for decades. (See 2.51pm.)

• Labour will not raise corporation tax above its current rate of 25% during the next parliament, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has pledged, in an attempt to offer businesses greater certainty.

• Forcing all UK supermarkets to put “not for EU” labels on meat, dairy and plant products in a move to assuage the concerns of unionists in Northern Ireland will force up prices and undermine the war against inflation, ministers have been told.

• MPs have passed unopposed two items of secondary legislation needed to implement the changes to the post-Brexit trading rules for Northern Ireland negotiated by the DUP. No MP voted against either measure even though during the debates some Tory Brexiters expressed concerns about the plans, and the DUP MP Sammy Wilson said that he did not support the deal. They believe it does not do enough to disapply EU law in Northern Ireland. By contact, the SDLP leader Colum Eastwood also said his party did not support the plan – but that is because because they feel it undermines the Good Friday agreement. (See 4.02pm.)

Keir Starmer with Labour’s Kingswood byelection candidate, Damien Egan, speaking to pupils during a visit to Hanham Woods academy school in Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, earlier today. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

4.49pm GMT

Many unionists still 'deeply worried' about post-Brexit trading rules for Northern Ireland, former DUP deputy leader says

Many unionists are still “deeply worried” about the impact of post-Brexit trading rules on Northern Ireland, despite the changes announced this week, a former deputy leader of the DUP said today.

Nigel Dodds, who sits in the House of Lords, told peers this afternoon:

There are still many unionists who are deeply worried and concerned that the Irish Sea border … still exists, since many goods coming from Great Britain, British goods coming to Northern Ireland, especially in manufacturing, still need to go through full EU compliance checks, procedures.

Dodds was speaking as Lord Caine, a Northern Ireland minister, made a statement about the Strengthening the Union command paper issued this week. Dodds asked him:

Will he also confirm the concern that there is among many unionists – and he knows Northern Ireland very well – at the continued sovereignty, jurisdiction and application of EU laws over large swathes of our economy in 300 areas, to which the Stormont brake doesn’t apply and we cannot make or amend laws within those areas?

Caine replied:

I am sorry to say to him that the government does take a very different view as a result of the deal that has been agreed over the past few days, as indeed I should gently point out does his party leader, who along with the government now accepts that what we have agreed is a firm basis for going back into the institutions and re-establishing the executive and the assembly at Stormont.

We simply don’t recognise that what he describes is anything like a trade border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As a result of this deal the number of goods that will pass through into Northern Ireland without checks will be significantly increased.