Labour’s ‘new deal for workers’ will not fully ban zero-hours contracts

Keir Starmer with Angela Rayner, who introduced the ‘new deal for working people’. Photograph: Darren Staples/Getty Images

Labour is facing criticism over plans for a loophole that would allow employees to work under zero-hours contracts, despite the party having pledged to ban them entirely.

Keir Starmer’s party is preparing to announce details of its promise to overhaul workers’ rights if it gets into power – a centrepiece of its early plans for government, but subject to fierce lobbying from businesses.