Starmer SCRAPS (not ‘waters down’) his pledge to strengthen workers’ rights
Keir Starmer has really done it this time; he has scrapped the Labour Party’s reason for existence.
In case it hasn’t occurred to you, the “Labour” in that party’s title means it was created to represent working people and people who have to seek work in order to make a living.
Not very long ago, Starmer pledged (he loves to pledge) stronger rights for workers if his party were to form a government.
Now that pledge is as much a part of history as all the others he has made:
Another Starmer pledge gone.
Labour waters down plans to strengthen workers’ rights; Starmer woos corporate leaders.
Protections of gig economy workers diluted.
No commitment to restore the right to strike or sectoral collective bargaining.
What next?https://t.co/7aSCmobfQ3
— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) August 18, 2023
Let’s be clear on this: Starmer has gone on the record many times, stating that his word is his bond and if he makes a pledge, he’ll stick by it (the following clip discusses renationalisations of privatised national utilities and the scrapping of university tuition fees, which are both Starmer pledges that have since been consigned to history):
Keir Starmer back in 2020 explaining that the pledges he makes will be in Labours next manifesto preceisely because they are pledges.pic.twitter.com/bDENBTVh1P
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) August 18, 2023
Saul Staniforth points out that Starmer’s supporters have excuses for his decisions to withdraw all the pledges he made when he became leader of what was still, then, the Labour Party. But Saul also clarifies that the same conditions are not relevant to the pledge on workers’ rights:
Starmer apologists say hes been forced to dump his pledges & commitments because since he made them theres been a pandemic, Ukraine & Truss's budget. So whats their excuse for him u-turning on his commitment to deliver a single worker status, which he made less than a year ago? pic.twitter.com/H5oYufhsCN
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) August 18, 2023
It seems clear from shadow minister Stephen Morgan’s interview response below that the pledge on workers’ rights is now history:
Shadow minister Stephen Morgan is asked if Labours pledge to deliver "a single worker status" as part of its plan to strengthen workers rights still stands (Starmer was promising this less than a year ago)
Morgan refuses to answer. pic.twitter.com/uplD8sd8eW
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) August 18, 2023
Here’s the at-a-glance guide to what Starmer has done:
🚨 BREAKING: Labour has dumped plans to expand workers' rights.
Labour pledged in 2021 to grant all workers basic rights from day one, expanding rights to gig economy workers. This plan has now been ditched. pic.twitter.com/dWB0ZLBWRx
— Stats for Lefties 🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) August 17, 2023
Alternatively, follow the link below for a more in-depth examination:
All those in Labour’s leadership making the running on the employment rights policy need to respond seriously to the issues raised in this incisive article.
“Labour Turns Its Back on Workers’ Rights” https://t.co/47JUE934wa— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) August 19, 2023
Amazingly, Angela Rayner is still claiming that the policy is intact and the only difference is that, now, the way it will be implemented is being laid out:
Our New Deal will be the biggest levelling up of workers’ rights in decades.
Far from watering it down, we will now set out in detail how we will implement it and tackle the Tories’ scaremongering,
Labour will make Britain work for working people.https://t.co/mJyXBNJA4k
— Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) August 18, 2023
But nobody is taking that seriously, including leading figures within the party:
Whoever thought it clever to brief FT Labour’s New Deal for workers’ rights was being watered down to please big business clearly never told @AngelaRayner Single status, sectoral pay bargaining & rights from day one are all too important, transformative reforms for these games. https://t.co/lDzbyUoBv8
— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) August 18, 2023
Ultimately, last week’s announcement means just one thing to most people:
Labour was founded to represent the working class.
Rowing back on Labour’s last remaining transformative policies – to improve workers rights – underlines a basic truth.
The Starmer project is one of the greatest acts of political deception in British democratic history. https://t.co/eKls7yQ7qc
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) August 17, 2023
And finally: here’s Damo with exactly the kind of earthy commentary we should expect from him:
The moment the Tories sneer at a Labour commitment, so much as they're worth anything when Keir Starmer makes them, Labour drops them like a stone, they must be terrified, not at the thought of losing Labour voters who they patently don't give a stuff about, the Mandelson… pic.twitter.com/FxsFmJm5Vr
— Damien Willey 🟢 🔴 (@KernowDamo) August 18, 2023
The punchline is that Starmer’s claim that scrapping this policy is pro-business… is childish nonsense.
Firms whose employees have strong rights and support are more successful than those whose workers don’t – because their job security instils loyalty, pride in their work and a genuine desire for the entire business to prosper. They are healthier in body and mind, and more productive.
Firms that treat their employees as they will be able to continue treating them under Starmer’s new policy… well, they go under. And then the bosses blame the workers they mistreated.
Starmer would know that if he had bothered to do any research.
Sadly, it seems he doesn’t know the meaning of work.
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Just shows you you can never trust any politician no matter from which party they are in.
Anyone who votes for Starmer and his fake Labour, tory party must need their head read! Both Sunak’s and The zionist bribed Starmer’s tory parties must be defeated at the next election!
Does anyone else think that Starmer is a tory plant, put in place to destroy the Labour Party? He’s certainly doing a very good job at finishing any hopes we have of any real opposition to the advance of right-wing extremism.
Why are otherwise decent people still voting for the zionist bribed, liar, fraud, deceiver, traitor, Starmer and his self serving nest of snakes? They are as bad, if not worse than the tories!