Keir Starmer urged to place employees’ rights ‘vote winner’ at coronary heart of manifesto

A senior union leader has urged Keir Starmer to stick to his workers’ rights plan ahead of a crunch meeting on Labour‘s manifesto.

TUC President Matt Wrack said the package was a “vote winner” and urged the Labour leader to resist pressure from business leaders to water it down. He also warned that there could be further strikes if a future Labour Government failed to address cost of living pressures on workers.

Members of Labour’s ruling body, union leaders and shadow ministers will meet on Friday to thrash out the details of the party’s offer to voters, which is expected to be published next week. Mr Wrack, the General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), said Labour must put the deal for workers “front and centre” in the manifesto.

The reforms, first unveiled in 2021, promised to give all workers employment rights from their first day in a job and impose a ban on zero hours contracts. But Labour has since said it won’t ban insecure contracts outright, focusing on ending “exploitative” contracts instead.

Mr Wrack said: “I don’t expect him to backtrack. I think it’s a vote winner and it will substantially improve the lives of millions of people. So for good policy reasons, for vote winning reasons and because it’s the right thing to do, he should stick with that and he should resist pressure from business and whoever to water it down.”

Asked if there would be further strike action in the winter if pay disputes continue, Mr Wrack said: “An incoming Labour government has to take account of the fact that people have struggled over 14 years particularly on the back of the cost of living crisis. And something has got to be done to address that in people’s pay packets that.

“I get that they’re going to be under financial constraints and so on, but something will need to be done about it. Otherwise, you may you may see people taking further industrial action.”

He dismissed Tory attempts to deride the plans by branding them French-style union laws as a “daft soundbite”. Mr Wrack accused the Conservatives of “putting hurdle after hurdle” in the way of trade unions and workers should have a right to fight for better pay and conditions.

“I don’t think we should fall for ‘we’re all going to return to some sort of nightmare of the 1970s’ or whatever they describe it as,” he said. “We should take that head on and unapologetically make the case for improved rights for working people and trade unions. I think it’s a vote winner.”