Labour MPs attack Starmer U-turn over workers’ rights as ‘complete betrayal’
Keir Starmer is facing backbench anger after ministers abandoned plans to give workers day-one protection against unfair dismissal, a U-turn that breaches the Labour manifesto.MPs including a former minister who spearheaded the employment rights bill with the former deputy leader Angela Rayner have voiced concerns over the climbdown announced by the government.Ministers have axed the proposal to remove the 24-month “qualifying period” for workers to make an unfair dismissal claim and allow them to do so from the first day in a new job, to try to get the legislation through parliament.The bill was caught in a standoff between peers and MPs over the original plan to give workers the protection on day one, as well as measures to ban “exploitative” zero-hours contracts.The government now intends to introduce the right over unfair dismissal after six months of service instead, while other day-one rights to paternity leave and sick pay are still due to go ahead, coming into effect in April 2026.
The Labour MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, Andy McDonald, described the move as a “complete betrayal” and vowed to push for its reversal.He said: “We cannot support that halfway measure.”He added: “This is a wrong-headed move and I will campaign to have this concession reversed.”The Labour MP for Poole, Neil Duncan-Jordan, said: “There has been no discussion with the PLP [parliamentary Labour party] about this.The Lords don’t have primacy over a manifesto commitment, so why have we capitulated?”The Labour MP for York Central, Rachael Maskell, said: “Employers have nothing to fear from day-one rights, but workers have everything to fear from an employer who doesn’t want day-one rights.
”The former employment minister Justin Madders, who was sacked in the prime minister’s reshuffle earlier this year, said it “definitely is a manifesto breach”.Labour’s manifesto explicitly promised to “consult fully with businesses, workers, and civil society on how to put our plans into practice before legislation is passed”.“This will include banning exploitative zero-hours contracts; ending fire and rehire; and introducing basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal,” it said.The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said there was a “very real prospect” the implementation of the employment rights bill would have been delayed if the government had not made a U-turn over day one protections against unfair dismissal.“There has been discussion on the point around unfair dismissal and the time period between businesses, the TUC and government, and following that discussion there’s been agreement about the way forward, which is welcome,” she told Sky News.
“It means that the time limit will come down from two years to six months, and that runs alongside important day-one rights around sick pay and around parental leave.But the risk here was that if we didn’t make progress, those important rights wouldn’t come into force from April next year.”Asked if it was a broken promise, Phillipson said: “In the manifesto, what we said was that we would work with trade unions, with business, with civil society, in consulting on those protections that we’d be bringing forward.“So, there are both parts to that, within the manifesto, the important rights and the consultation.”
Foreign interference or opportunistic grifting: why are so many pro-Trump X accounts based in Asia?
When X rolled out a new feature revealing the locations of popular accounts, the company was acting to boost transparency and clamp down on disinformation. The result, however, has been a circular firing squad of recriminations, as users turn on each other enraged by the revelation that dozens of popular “America first” and pro-Trump accounts originated overseas.The new feature was enabled over the weekend by X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, who called it the first step in “securing the integrity of the global town square.” Since then many high-engagement accounts that post incessantly about US politics have been “unmasked” by fellow users.An Ivanka Trump fan account that posts about illegal immigration to the US was shown to be based in Nigeria
London councils enact emergency plans after three hit by cyber-attack
Three London councils have reported a cyber-attack, prompting the rollout of emergency plans and the involvement of the National Crime Agency (NCA) as they investigate whether any data has been compromised.The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), and Westminster city council, which share some IT infrastructure, said a number of systems had been affected across both authorities, including phone lines. The councils shut down several computerised systems as a precaution to limit further possible damage.The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham had also reported an attack. Together the three authorities provide services for more than half a million Londoners
European parliament calls for social media ban on under-16s
Children under 16 should be banned from using social media unless their parents decide otherwise, the European parliament says.MEPs passed a resolution on age restrictions on Wednesday by a large majority. Although not legally binding, it raises pressure for European legislation amid growing alarm about the mental health risks to children of unfettered internet access.The European Commission, which is responsible for initiating EU law, is already studying Australia’s world-first social-media ban for under-16s, which is due to take effect next month.In a speech in September, the commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she would watch the implementation of Australia’s policy
ChatGPT firm blames boy’s suicide on ‘misuse’ of its technology
The maker of ChatGPT has said the suicide of a 16-year-old was down to his “misuse” of its system and was “not caused” by the chatbot.The comments came in OpenAI’s response to a lawsuit filed against the San Francisco company and its chief executive, Sam Altman, by the family of California teenager Adam Raine.Raine killed himself in April after extensive conversations and “months of encouragement from ChatGPT”, the family’s lawyer has said.The lawsuit alleges the teenager discussed a method of suicide with ChatGPT on several occasions, that it guided him on whether a suggested method would work, offered to help him write a suicide note to his parents and that the version of the technology he used was “rushed to market … despite clear safety issues”.According to filings at the superior court of the state of California on Tuesday, OpenAI said that “to the extent that any ‘cause’ can be attributed to this tragic event” Raine’s “injuries and harm were caused or contributed to, directly and proximately, in whole or in part, by [his] misuse, unauthorised use, unintended use, unforeseeable use, and/or improper use of ChatGPT”
Europe loosens reins on AI – and US takes them off
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, writing to you from an American grocery store, where I’m planning my Thanksgiving pies.In tech, the European Union is deregulating artificial intelligence; the United States is going even further. The AI bubble has not popped, thanks to Nvidia’s astronomical quarterly earnings, but fears persist. And Meta has avoided a breakup for a similar reason as Google
Macquarie Dictionary announces ‘AI slop’ as its word of the year, beating out Ozempic face
AI slop is here, it’s ubiquitous, it’s being used by the US president, Donald Trump, and now, it’s the word of the year.The Macquarie Dictionary dubbed the term the epitome of 2025 linguistics, with a committee of word experts saying the outcome embodies the word of the year’s general theme of reflecting “a major aspect of society or societal change throughout the year”.“We understand now in 2025 what we mean by slop – AI generated slop, which lacks meaningful content or use,” the committee said in a statement announcing its decision.“While in recent years we’ve learnt to become search engineers to find meaningful information, we now need to become prompt engineers in order to wade through the AI slop. Slop in this sense will be a robust addition to English for years to come
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