Unions dismiss May’s calls on worker rights

UNION leaders have hit out at Theresa May’s plan to lure Labour MPs to back her Brexit deal.

The Prime Minister called the chiefs yesterday to rally support.

It comes after we revealed how Labour backbenchers want to amend the PM’s strategy to boost protections for workers.

No 10 said it was “something we would consider very seriously”. It added the PM had “constructive” talks with Unite’s Len McCluskey and GMB’s Tim Roache.

But Mr Roache said: “I was very clear... the deal isn’t good enough and non-binding assurances on workers’ rights won’t cut it.”

TUC’s Frances O’Grady said the amendment “makes no change to a bad deal for working people’s rights”. And Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn said of the plan: “It’s been clearly rejected by the TUC and leading unions. They say it doesn’t guarantee the protections we are seeking. We don’t endorse or accept what’s been put forward.”

Labour’s John Mann, one of those behind the amendment, urged MPs to compromise, warning: “Otherwise the prospect of no-deal gets all the more real.”

Business Secretary Greg Clark added pressure by refusing to rule out quitting over a no-deal Brexit, which Japan’s leader Shinzo Abe “truly hoped” would be avoided.

It came as Commons leader Andrea Leadsom criticised Speaker John Bercow over his alleged bias against Brexiteers, after he allowed an amendment.

But he told MPs: “I require no lessons about how to discharge my obligations to Parliament.”