Labour will listen to bosses’ concerns on workers’ rights, says business secretary
The business secretary, Peter Kyle, has opened the door to bosses to influence Labour’s landmark changes to workers’ rights, amid boardroom fears over jobs and growth.In a signal the government could consider watering down the overhaul of employment rights, Kyle told business leaders at the CBI conference in London that he would hold a series of 26 consultations with companies after the bill became law.“When we launch these consultations, please engage with it,” he said.“Make your voice heard and engage with me and my department to make sure we get it right.”With Labour under pressure to reboot the economy before the autumn budget on Wednesday, Kyle committed to ensure that businesses would not “lose” as a result of the changes, which include a ban on zero-hour contracts and day-one protections for workers against unfair dismissal.
“I will not allow it to become zero-sum, [you] give one to the other, the other loses … This has to be got right.”Business leaders have stepped up lobbying against the workers’ rights changes, saying that employers would cut jobs as a result.The government’s own analysis estimates the changes could cost employers anything from £900m to £5bn to implement.Ministers are under pressure to implement the employment rights bill “in full” after Keir Starmer’s September reshuffle fuelled unease among unions after the resignation of Angela Rayner, who had championed the plan.Union leaders and backbench Labour MPs have said reneging on the manifesto promise, which has large public backing, would betray voters and undermine workplace protections for millions.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, told business leaders at the CBI that Labour’s shake-up represented a bigger risk to companies and the economy than tax rises in Rachel Reeves’s budget on Wednesday.She said: “It is a 330-page assault on flexible working, written in the TUC’s headquarters, designed to drag Britain back to a world where unions are calling the shots.” Promising that a Tory government would repeal the changes, she said Kyle’s assurance to business leaders that he would listen to their concerns would mean little in practice.“If 26 consultations are what you need to fix things, then you have a really, really big problem,” she added.Rupert Soames, the president of the CBI, said the bill would be “really, really damaging” for firms.
Kyle told businesses they could be reassured by his presence in government.As the science and technology secretary, Kyle was accused of being too close to big tech after Guardian analysis showed he had met nearly 70% more times with companies than his Conservative predecessor.“Thats is a criticism that I happily accept and it’s one that I expect to repeat in this job,” he said.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionKyle said he accepted business confidence had been undermined by continual speculation before Reeves’s budget on Wednesday.Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the CBI conference, he said: “I accept that some businesses have said that they are frustrated with the speculation.
..“I will listen to them and I’ll respect it, and I’ll give them a voice in the future decisions that we take.”He also acknowledged that some of Labour’s tax changes had led to wealthy individuals leaving the UK, telling Sky News earlier on Monday: “I’m not going to duck the fact that we have put up taxes and we’ve closed some of the loopholes for non-doms.”Currently going through parliament, Labour’s employment rights bill has been amended three times by Tory and Liberal Democrat peers in the Lords to accommodate key business demands.
Labour has sought to reassure bosses by suggesting it could tweak the law once it is passed, using secondary legislation, but unions fear this could lead to it being watered down,Kyle said he would do “what it takes” to unblock parliamentary hold-ups to the bill because of the Lords amendments, before then consulting on its implementation,“The voice of business, the voice of people who work in business, will be heard when we get down into the weeds of implementing those key parts of the employment rights bill,And yes, I’m talking about zero-hours contracts and day-one rights,” he said,
Budget 2025: how inflation and the two-child benefit cap have increased poverty
“I’ve sat and cried many times, feeling like I’ve let my kids down,” is the heartbreaking description one Kent mother gives of the difficulty she has meeting her family’s needs.With four children still under 13, the family live in a rented flat in the town of Herne Bay on the county’s north coast. She does not come to the door, but her partner passes a handwritten note relaying their meagre existence on benefits as the Guardian joins the local food bank’s morning delivery round.“I have to be careful with electric and gas, and food has to be £1 frozen food,” she writes. “Snacks are a very rare treat
Bereaved parents face ‘harrowing’ delays for NHS postmorterms
Bereaved parents are enduring “harrowing” delays of more than a year to find out why their child died because the NHS has too few specialist doctors to perform postmortems.The shortage of paediatric and perinatal pathologists is revealed in a report by the Royal College of Pathologists published on Sunday. It warns that the situation is “dire”, services in some parts of the UK have “totally collapsed” and families are paying the price.The NHS has so few of those doctors that in some regions the bodies of babies and children who have died have to be taken elsewhere for examination, for example from Northern Ireland to Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, the college says.“Our service is in crisis”, said Dr Clair Evans, the chair of the college’s advisory committee that represents pathologists who specialise in the care of under-18s
‘We’ve got to find answers’: Corby families affected by cancer searching for truth about toxic waste sites
Alison Gaffney and Andy Hinde received the devastating news that their 17-month-old son, Fraser, had a rare type of leukaemia in 2018.Two years of gruelling treatment followed, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy, before a stem cell transplant. Fraser, then aged three, made a “miraculous recovery” from the surgery, before doctors declared the cancer in remission.It was at this point, as Fraser started to recover and grow stronger, that Gaffney, 36, began to look for answers. She could not stop thinking about comments made by hospital staff at the time of her son’s diagnosis
UK gambling firms spent ‘astronomic’ £2bn on advertising last year
British gambling companies spent an “astronomic” £2bn on advertising and marketing last year, according to a new estimate that has intensified calls for the chancellor to increase taxes on the sector.Bookmakers, online casinos and slot machine companies spent the sum through a mixture of print and digital promotions, as well as affiliate programmes, where third parties are paid to steer gamblers towards particular operators in return for a fee.The figure, produced by the leading media insights group WARC, far outstrips the £1.2bn that the Treasury collected last year from online casino companies.Media industry sources said the total spent on gambling advertising is likely to be hundreds of millions of pounds higher because it is difficult to accurately measure the actual amount of digital marketing spend
South Africa declares gender-based violence a national disaster amid G20 protests
Hundreds of women gathered in cities across South Africa on Friday to protest against gender-based violence in the country before the G20 summit in Johannesburg this weekend.Demonstrators turned out in 15 locations – including Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban – wearing black as a sign of “mourning and resistance”.They staged a peaceful 15-minute silent lie-down protest, symbolising the 15 lives lost daily to gender-based violence in the country.South Africa has one of the world’s highest femicide rates, with UN Women estimating that it is five times higher than the global average.Called the G20 Women’s Shutdown, it was organised by the NGO Women For Change, which urged women and LGBTQ+ communities to “refrain from all paid and unpaid work in workplaces, universities and homes, and to spend no money for the entire day to demonstrate the economic and social impact of their absence”
Coroners’ prevention of future deaths reports should be legally enforced | Letters
Thank you for your article on how coroners’ prevention of future deaths (PFD) reports are being routinely ignored (Coroners’ advice on maternal deaths in England and Wales routinely ignored, study finds, 19 November).Experience has shown us that a coroner’s PFD report is issued in response to serious systemic failings and a trust’s inaction to prevent future tragedies. Tolerating poor care and refusing to learn seem to be shared features of health scandals, including the treatment of people with learning disabilities, such as our own beloved daughter, Juliet Saunders, who died aged 25.She died because the local hospital made a misdiagnosis and discharged her unsafely. The harrowing experience of the inquest was softened for us by the coroner seeing that Juliet was dearly loved and happy
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