The UK’s most senior trade unionist is calling on the government to demonstrate “whose side it is on” following the Labour reshuffle.
The General Secretary of the TUC, Paul Nowak, will tell his annual conference in Brighton today that the government must do more for working class communities.
He will argue that Labour’s promise of change at the last election doesn’t feel like “a lived reality”.
He will say that the Labour government needs to make what he calls “the right political choices” to persuade voters that it is on their side.
He will call for the two child benefit cap to be lifted – paid for by new taxes on wealth.
There is a similar message from Sharon Graham, the leader of the Unite union – though her warning to Labour has financial as well as political consequences.
At her own union’s conference in the summer, delegates voted overwhelmingly to re-examine its relationship with Labour.
She has now told the that at a future Unite conference, there will be an opportunity to sever a long-standing link which is worth around £1.3m a year to Labour.
She said: “Instinctively, workers don’t feel that Labour is on their side. We will be giving our members the opportunity to vote on whether to remain part of Labour when the time comes.
“If that vote was today, I think they’d vote to disaffiliate. There’s no doubt about that in my mind.”
Ms Graham predicted that Reform UK would be the chief beneficiaries if Labour failed to improve standards of living. She argued that “unless Labour do something quite radical”, then “they are going to find themselves in huge difficulty.”
She added: “They’ve got about a year to get this right. And if they don’t do that, people will start moving away from them, and I don’t believe they’ll go back.”
The warnings come as the leader of the UK’s biggest trade union Christina McAnea said it would be a “huge mistake” for the government to water down its Employment Rights Bill, which is due to become law in a few weeks.
The legislation would be a major shake-up of workers’ rights, including protection against unfair dismissal and a ban on “exploitative” zero-hours contracts.
McAnea said she is concerned that ministers are no longer committed to implementing the bill in full, following Angela Rayner’s resignation and the cabinet reshuffle.
Labour has said it is delivering the biggest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation and that wages are now rising faster than prices.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said that the next phase of government will focus on “delivery, delivery, delivery” of its promises.
