A ‘fairness at work’ promise could help Labour rebuild its red wall

Sir Keir Starmer wants to give everyone the right to work flexibly, so working from home does not become 24/7. To prevent a two-tier workforce, this right should include flexible hours as well as working from home, writes Andrew Grice

Sir Keir Starmer will try to unite the Labour party around popular policy (Getty Images)

Sir Keir Starmer is carrying out a big shake-up of his closest advisers ahead of what Labour fears will be another disappointing by-election defeat next Thursday in Batley and Spen.

Why now? If Labour loses the seat, he could tell his party he has already recognised the need for change and to improve his team’s performance.

Labour is not a happy place. After the party’s poor showing in the Hartlepool and Chesham and Amersham by-elections, Starmer desperately needs a shot in the arm. But in allowing Tracy Brabin to run for West Yorkshire mayor, which sparked the by-election when she won, Labour might have shot itself in the foot.

Starmer allies suspect the maverick Workers Party candidate George Galloway, helped by radical Muslims and even some on Labour’s hard left, will depress the Labour vote and allow the Tories to capture Batley and Spen. There are rumours in Labour land that Starmer would then face a leadership challenge, perhaps from a backbench stalking horse who, if their challenge did not fizzle out, might draw shadow cabinet contenders such as Angela Rayner and Lisa Nandy into a full-scale contest. Although Starmer will likely avoid that, the fact that such scenarios are even being discussed in Labour circles is a worrying sign for him.

Starmer plans to steady the ship this summer by unveiling the first fruits of his wide-ranging policy review. Rather than picking a fight with his party by ditching some of Jeremy Corbyn’s agenda, he will try to unite it around a popular policy. One possible big idea is to tackle insecure, precarious work. Almost one in three people are in the gig economy, agency workers or on zero hours contracts, while “fire and rehire” has become more widespread.

A “fairness at work” promise could help Labour rebuild its red wall. While the Tories will probably steal some of Starmer’s new policies, their free market, deregulatory instincts and close business links make them wary about improving rights at work.

A promised Employment Bill was dropped from the recent Queen’s Speech, perhaps to stop MPs adding amendments to safeguard workers’ rights. Although the government has announced a single “workers’ watchdog” to regulate the gig economy, enforce the national minimum wage and tackle modern slavery, Boris Johnson and his ministers have cooled on proposals from their former labour-market tsar Matthew Taylor. That they did not renew his contract or replace him tells us a lot about their instincts. Taylor wants the status of gig economy workers to be clarified by legislation. The case for that has grown; those who were not full employees were three times as likely to see a major loss of income in the pandemic. Not much levelling up there.

It’s surprising the Treasury is not keener on Taylor’s ideas, as they would make it harder for companies to classify workers as self-employed to reduce employers’ national insurance contributions.

The Tories are torn between their hunger for post-Brexit deregulation and hanging on to their new working-class voters. When he became business secretary in January, Kwasi Kwarteng wanted to review employees’ rights, including the EU’s maximum 48-hour working week, but scrapped it amid fears it would alienate people in the red wall.

The pandemic has pushed flexible working up the political agenda. Labour wants to give everyone the right to work flexibly as the default option (rather than the present right to request it), with a “right to switch off” so working from home does not become 24/7. To prevent a two-tier workforce, this right should include flexible hours as well as working from home.

Ministers are in a quandary over whether to urge people to return to their offices when the remaining Covid restrictions are lifted on 19 July. Despite Johnson’s desire to revive city centres, they probably won’t do so. The government is also unsure whether to honour the 2019 Tory manifesto pledge to make flexible working the default option unless employers have good reason to reject it.

During Labour’s leadership election, Starmer’s 10 pledges included one to “strengthen workers’ rights and trade unions”, including tackling insecure work and low pay. Shadow cabinet ministers believe the case has since become even stronger. Andy McDonald, the shadow employment rights secretary, told me: “We’re at a fork in the road as we emerge from the pandemic. We can continue with growing insecure and low-paid work, or we can introduce a new deal for working people based on fairness, security, and opportunity.”

Starmer will probably drop some of Corbyn’s agenda during the policy review’s later stages. The left and the unions won’t like that but will welcome his move to make workplace rights a key dividing line with the Tories. It would be right as well as popular. Although his internal critics agree with the old Tory slogan that “Labour isn’t working”, a promise of fairer work might just be the game-changer Starmer needs.