TUC address
Starmer hails ‘national renewal’ amid pensions protest
Sir Keir Starmer will use a keynote speech to trade unionists to hail the beginning of a new relationship between business and workers, though it will be overshadowed by accusations that he has betrayed the country’s pensioners
In an address to the Trades Union Congress on Tuesday – the first by a Prime Minister in 15 years – the Labour leader will describe the hostility between boardroom and shopfloor as an “outdated trope”, and say that pro-worker, pro-business partnerships will be a driver of national renewal.
After early successes in reaching pay deals with train drivers and junior doctors he will say that “the mood is for partnership”, adding that partnership is a “more difficult way” of doing politics.
“I know there’s clarity in the old ways, the zero-sum ways: business versus worker, management versus union, public versus private. That kind of politics is not what the British people want,” he will say.
The Labour leader will warn that this does not mean it is open season for pay settlements and that the government “will not risk its mandate for economic stability, under any circumstances”.
He will tell delegates that with tough decisions on the horizon, pay will inevitably be shaped by those conditions.
“I owe you that candour because – as was so painfully exposed by the last government – when you lose control of the economy it’s working people who pay the price.”
However, his claim that Labour can “deliver for working people: young people, vulnerable people, the poorest in society, because we changed the Labour party” is likely to jar with those who say Labour has begun its tenure with a betrayal of working people and pensioners.
The Unite union has accused Labour of “picking the pockets” of pensioners and Sir Keir could face some hostility during his presentation in Brighton.
He will be reminded that in the run-up to general election he promised to retain the winter fuel allowance. Those protesting against illegal immigration accuse him of allowing “two tier policing” which has seen them unfairly labelled as “far right thugs”, while their opponents are treated more leniently. Labour and the police deny the claims.
Tommy Robinson, the self-styled leader of the “Force for Good”, is organising a rally in Downing Street on 26 October, claiming that British people have had enough of what they see as discrimination against them and an infiltration of the country by people who should not be here.
Sir Keir is expected to face a revolt in the Commons on Tuesday over the decision to withdraw the winter fuel payments to pensioners not in receipt of credits. A number of backbench Labour MPs will join the SNP and Tories in opposing the move, though the government’s huge majority will ensure the government will see off the rebellion.
In his address to the TUC he will insist that he is being upfront with the voters and putting their interests before the party’s.
“When we finally saw the books, and with trust in politics so low, I had to be honest with the British people… I owed it to them to promise only what we knew we could deliver,” he will say.
“And yet even in our worst fears we didn’t think it would be this bad. The pollution in our rivers, the overcrowding in our prisons, so much of our crumbling public realm – universities, councils, the care system, all even worse than we expected.”
He will criticise the Tory government’s record on immigration by saying: “Millions of pounds wasted on a Rwanda scheme that they knew would never work. Politics reduced to an expensive, divisive, noisy performance, a game to be played and not the force that can fundamentally change the lives of those we represent.”
He will say that the work on rebuilding the foundations and improving living standards includes a reform of workers’ rights.
“We will repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act, we will get rid of Minimum Service Level legislation, end the cheap and vindictive attacks on this movement and turn the page on politics as noisy performance – once and for all,” he says.
“We will keep to the course of change, reject the snake oil of easy answers, fix the foundations of our economy and build a new Britain. More secure, more prosperous, more dynamic, and fairer. A country renewed and returned, calmly but with confidence, to the service of working people.”
No comments:
Post a Comment