The education secretary has promised there will be no watering down of the employment rights bill, after unions raised concerns about its future.
Bridget Phillipson, who on Tuesday entered the race for Labour deputy leader, said “no ifs, no buts” that the legislation would be delivered “in full”.
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Her assurances came after unions repeatedly raised concerns that the bill could be weakened following Angela Rayner’s dramatic departure from government and other ministerial changes.
Ms Phillipson told the TUC in conference in Brighton that ministers would not accept “any watering down by the Lords” – suggesting that ministers would be prepared to overturn any amendments that are currently being tabled by peers.
The education secretary received the strongest applause when she said: “One year ago, we were elected to deliver this Employment Rights Bill and congress, that is what we will do.
“We won’t accept any watering down by the Lords. Forward with the Employment Rights Bill – in full.”
As a former care worker and Unison representative, Ms Rayner was regarded by the unions as the strongest champion of the employment rights bill in government.
Her departure, prompted by her admission that she had failed to pay the correct amount of stamp duty on her second home in Hove, East Sussex, sparked jitters within the trade union movement that the bill could be kicked into the long grass or changed further to allay some businesses’ concerns.
The bill, which offers workers a raft of new protections, including sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal from day one of a job, is currently undergoing scrutiny in the House of Lords, where peers have tabled amendments to alter it.
Bridget: Mam was threatened with baseball bat
In her first audition for the job of Labour deputy leader, Bridget Phillipson came to Brighton to woo the trade unions. And she began with a traumatic story about her childhood.
By the time she rose to address the Trade Unions Congress conference at 3.30pm, she was one of no fewer than six candidates, all women, having announced her bid as “a proud working-class woman from the North-East… from a single parent family”.
And as is the habit of candidates for election to high office these days – Sir Keir Starmer first told the story about his father Rodney the toolmaker in a speech at a TUC conference – she told delegates about an ordeal during her childhood.
“I grew up on a street of council houses in Washington, in the North-East – just me and my mam,” he said. Note she said “mam”, not “mother”.
“And back when I was young,” she continued, “a man turned up at the front door with a baseball bat.
“A few weeks earlier, we’d been burgled – and my mam had reported it to the police. Now the man had come back to scare her into silence.
“He clearly didn’t know my mam though. Because even at nine years old I could have told him he was wasting his time. She stood her ground. He went to prison.”
And the lesson she learned? “From my mam I learned about strength,” she said. “Not the kind that preys on the weak.
“No, I learned the kind that stands up to adversity. The strength to do what’s right, even if it would be easier to crumble.”
Lots of politicians claim working class origins, poverty and hardship. And no doubt some of them embellish their humble backstory for political advantage.
But Bridget Phillipson is the genuine working-class article. And her story – like Sir Keir’s Rodney the toolmaker – is one we’ll no doubt hear a lot more during this deputy election campaign.
Just before parliament’s summer recess, the House of Lords backed by 304 votes to 160 a Tory-led amendment to reduce the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims from two years to six months, rather than from day one, as proposed by Ms Rayner.
One union source told Sky News there were still concerns that ministers could offer concessions to business without changing the fundamental provisions for workers – for example, by removing the right for trade union representatives to access workplaces for the purposes of organising.
The candidates to replace Angela Rayner are: Bridget Phillipson, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Lucy Powell, Lucy Powell, Emily Thornberry, Alison McGovern and Paula Barker.
“The unions are relying on backbenchers to fight for this bill,” they said.
Referring to the government’s climbdown over welfare cuts, the source added: “The parliamentary party has already shown they are prepared to stand up to the government.”
Ms Phillipson became the second candidate to declare her candidacy in the race to succeed Ms Rayner on Tuesday morning.
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She will run in the contest alongside foreign affairs select committee chair Emily Thornberry, former Commons leader Lucy Powell, housing minister Alison McGovern and MPs Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Paula Barker.
In a nod to her deputy leadership bid, Ms Phillipson acknowledged the threat posed by Reform, but argued Nigel Farage’s party would “drag” the UK back “to the 1950s”.
She highlighted previous comments by the Reform leader, including his description of maternity leave as “lunacy”.
Ms Phillipson, who also holds the role of women and equalities minister, is regarded as the leadership’s preferred candidate for the role and as someone who could prevent damaging internal splits from emerging at a time when Labour is lagging significantly behind Reform in the polls.
Critics have argued that her presence in the race makes it effectively impossible for lesser-known or more leftwing candidates to progress, given that nominations from 80 MPs are needed to get on the ballot.
