Mandelson mauls Rayner’s reforms
Grandee’s intervention exposes Labour split over plans he fears will damage businesses
ANGELA Rayner’s flagship reforms to workers’ rights were under threat yesterday after Labour figures warned that they could damage the party’s relationship with business.
Party grandee Peter Mandelson warned against betraying the private sector while a pro-Keir Starmer think-tank called for consultation with companies.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir’s team also already appear to have watered down some of the more controversial pledges.
However Ms Rayner’s union backers came to the deputy leader’s defence yesterday, dismissing Lord Mandelson’s concerns as those of a business consultant.
She has said that legislation will be brought forward within the first 100 days of a Labour government to reform workers’ rights.
It would give everyone employment rights from their first day in a job and ban zero hours contracts as well as repealing recent laws limiting strike action.
She told The Guardian this weekend: ‘You’ll get bored of seeing me in the first 100 days of a future Labour government.
‘I’m committed to ensuring I get our new housing [policies] and New Deal for Working People over the line very quickly.’
But Lord Mandelson, one of the architects of New Labour, wrote in The Sunday Times that the party should not betray business with the policy.
Ms Rayner is the minister responsible for overseeing the package of pledges after ensuring it stayed within her brief when she became levelling up spokesman.
Lord Mandelson’s intervention will cause concern within Labour as he is an influential figure who is known to have the ear of leader Sir Keir.
In his article, he welcomed Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s plans for growth in a lecture last week but warned that the party should slow down and give clarity on its proposals.
‘Investors will have eyes on the total UK business environment, including regulation. This includes labour market and trade union law,’ he wrote.
‘There is a clear case for reform
but the case needs to be tested, priorities established and the complexities thoroughly addressed. This must not be rushed but it must be done in consultation with business.’
The article is understood to refer to some of the less clear sections of Ms Rayner’s plans.
Influential pro-Starmer thinktank Labour Together has urged the party to assess the impact of the reforms on the private sector.
Director Josh Simons has also cautioned that the party must work with business.
He said: ‘A package like this is long overdue. Its success will depend on stewarding the oftmentioned partnership with business because in the end, policy like this only works if its objectives are clear and supported by those who must deliver it.’
Some of Ms Rayner’s policies already appear to be under review as Ms Reeves and her team are said to be re-examining them.
While backing workers’ rights proposals, Ms Reeves appears to have dialled down the total ban on zero hours contracts, saying only that she would bar the ‘exploitative’ versions.
Yesterday Labour Party chairman Anneliese Dodds said that all zero hours contracts would be banned, backing Ms Rayner.
It is understood that Labour plans to give workers the right to a contract to reflect their normal hours and so greater rights over their employment.
The plans are also coming under pressure from the Confederation of British Industry.
The CBI’s Matthew Percival said flexibility was important but some of Labour’s New Deal ‘could unintentionally make it harder and more expensive for employers to offer that’. He added that business wants to work with Labour to
‘Unintended consequences’
ensure the plan would be ‘free of any unintended consequences’.
Yesterday Unite general secretary Sharon Graham dismissed Lord Mandelson’s intervention. She said: ‘Peter Mandelson earns his corn working as a consultant for private corporations.
‘His constant attacks on workers’ rights seem to be driven by his personal financial interests.’
Ms Rayner appeared undeterred by resistance to her plans. She told The Guardian: ‘The idea that Rachel [Reeves] and Keir are somehow in the business corner, and I’m in the worker corner, is for the birds. We’re all pro-worker, pro-business and we’re all signed up to that.’