Uber ruling is a warning to firms
YOU may be aware that recently the Supreme Court ruled Uber drivers should be given workers’ rights, but what you might not know is that this landmark judgment will have repercussions for others working in the gig economy.
This judgment should be heeded as a warning to companies with a similar business model that they cannot continue to operate in this way.
Michael Newman Employment team at Leigh Day
FORMER MP Edwina Currie has announced she will be a candidate in May’s Derbyshire County Council elections.
The writer and broadcaster served as Conservative MP for South Derbyshire for 14 years, but has not been involved in frontline politics since 1997.
She said the death of her husband, John Jones, and the success of US president Joe Biden influenced her decision to stand as a county council candidate in Whaley Bridge.
She said: “My husband was suffering from cancer and we moved back to Derbyshire 10 years ago. He died at home on November 1 and it left a very, very big hole in my life that I wanted to fill.
“Not long after, I watched the American election and I thought Joe Biden was a real hero, coming out of retirement to beat Trump.
“He’s old, but he used his exceptional experience well, and I thought maybe I can do the same.”
Despite spending more than two decades away from the frontline, the 74-year-old former Cabinet minister she said it felt like she had never been gone.
The pandemic has made it more of a challenging experience than her previous campaigns, though.
She said: “It’s a peculiar thing. It’s like riding a bike, once you know how to do it you don’t forget.
“I never fully left politics. I’ve been president of the High Peak Conservative Association and I’m always doing radio interviews and talking to the media.
“This is a weird election though because we can’t go knocking doorto-door or canvas like usual. It’s all done on social media, which is definitely odd.”
In 1988 Mrs Currie was forced to resign as Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Health after she issued a warning about salmonella in British eggs. The statement that “most of the egg production in this country, sadly, is now affected with salmonella” sparked outrage among farmers and egg producers, and caused egg sales in the country to nose-dive. The loss of revenue led to the slaughter of four million hens.
There was more controversy in 2002 when she revealed she had had a four-year affair with John Major between 1984 and 1988, while both were married to other people.
Mrs Currie will stand against Ruth George, current Labour councillor for Whaley Bridge. Ms George said she was relishing the role and highlighted what she had managed to achieve in a short time, which includes setting up the area’s first food bank and preventing the closure of a care home.