Is Sunak starting a war with the trade unions?

RISHI Sunak’s demonisation of trade unions is a path that is becoming more precarious for the Prime Minister.

He is vehemently repeating that he is trying to protect the people of this country from strikes. Mr Sunak, it is the people of this country who are doing the striking.

There will be strike action north or south of the Border by rail workers, NHS workers, Royal Mail workers, airport workers, offshore workers, teachers, airport staff, customs staff, highway workers, driving examiners, and coffin makers this month alone.

There is disruption and inconvenience during strikes, but most people recognise the right to industrial action as a valid way for workers’ voices to be heard.

Likewise, employers should expect support from a UK Government that has managed to make doing business more difficult by presiding over the exacerbation of global economic challenges in areas such as energy and labour including through the introduction and withdrawal of failed experimental policies.

We are seeing nurses queue at foodbanks, and ambulance drivers in tears amid the critical failure of the NHS.

Following the placing of the plans for laws against strike action in the press, Mr Sunak told reporters with gusto: “What I am going to do is ensure that I minimise the disruption to people’s lives and makes sure that we protect lives and that is what we are working on right now with resilience and contingency plans, but also looking at tough new laws which will help us do that.”

Given the Conservative administration’s already shaky peg after the “no rules were broken” party scandal, a campaign to outlaw hard-pressed workers is surely a risky narrative to foster from a political point of view at this stage.

“The Government is trying its best to act reasonably,” the Prime Minister said with a straight face. That may raise a wry smile, but tough new laws against workers is no laughing matter.

Also a worry are aspects of the financial services overhaul, supported by Mr Sunak, with the aim said to be opening opportunity. Targeted among them are reforms made in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis around managers’ responsibility over the impacts of their decisions, and the ringfencing of funds to protect against riskier investment as proposed by the Vickers Commission.

Sir John Vickers said “unravelling” this would be a “huge mistake”.

Elsewhere this week, deputy business editor Scott Wright took a look behind the scenes at East Kilbride Shopping Centre, Scotland’s largest undercover retail precinct, which is currently in administration.

“That such a prominent retail destination is facing an uncertain future will be concerning for the many people whose livelihoods depend on it remaining open,” he writes, adding “it would be difficult to overstate how important the centre is to the town of East Kilbride”.

There was encouraging news from EK this week with Munro, currently based there, announcing its all-electric 4x4 is set to become the mass produced motor in Scotland in more than four decades.

When work starts in the second quarter of next year, the company will be the first automotive manufacturer to build cars at scale in Scotland since Peugeot-talbot closed its Linwood plant in 1981.