Angela Rayner to tell TUC Labour policies can deliver proper levelling up and that Tory version is ‘sham and scam’
Good morning. One of the signs of confidence in a political party is when it can successfully appropriate the slogans of its opponents and today we are going to see another example of that from Labour. Keir Starmer did it last year when he declared that he would Make Brexit Work. And today, in her speech to the TUC conference, Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, will insist that Labour has the policies that could deliver proper levelling up.
She will argue that having workers in unionised jobs helps levelling up. And she will argue that the Tory version of the policy – dreamed up by Boris Johnson, and half-heartedly maintained by his successors – has been “a sham and a scam”.
Rayner was made shadow levelling up secretary in last week’s shadow cabinet reshuffle and this is her first speech in this role.
According to extracts released in advance, she will say:
As a young single mum, it was a Labour government that levelled the playing field for me. When I most needed it, a council house gave me my son a secure home instead of surfing sofas. That in turn meant I could go out and find the job that I built a life upon. The minimum wage meant I earned more. A local authority job gave me better skills at work, and a Sure Start centre better skills as a parent. And joining a union changed my whole life – and meant I could change other people’s lives too.
That kind of levelling up transformed my life and my prospects – because it was done right. A house and a good, unionised job, with decent conditions, a thriving community empowered to create good local services and educational opportunities – these things were my lifeline, and they are what real levelling-up mean to me.
They are what levelling up could have been and could still be.
But everything I relied upon to improve my life and my community has instead been levelled down by the Tories. With housebuilding and wages plummeting across the whole country, this government’s version of levelling up is a sham – and a scam.
Rayner has been doing an interview round this morning. I will post highlights from what she has been saying shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
10am: Keir Starmer takes part in a Q&A with sixth formers in Liverpool.
10.20am: Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, speaks at the Police Superintendents’ Association’s annual conference.
10.45am: Anglea Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, speaks to the TUC conference.
11am: The Social Mobility Commission publishes its annual report.
11.30am: Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
2pm: Michelle Donelan, the science secretary, hosts a roundtable at Downing Street about the online safety bill.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
Key events
TUC says new polling shows ‘overwhelming support’ for Labour’s new deal for working people policies
Angela Rayner will be promoting Labour’s “new deal for working people” in her speech to the TUC. In the Labour reshuffle last week, as well as being made shadow levelling up secretary, Rayner retained overall responsiblity for this agenda. She helped to develop the policies as shadow secretary of state for the future of work, one of her previous frontbench jobs.
This morning the TUC has released polling suggesting that the key proposals in the new deal for working people are popular with voters. Here is an extract from the news release, summarising the results of the polling by Opinium.
Day one rights: 2 in 3 (67%) support all workers having a day one right to protection from unfair dismissal – including 61% of Conservative 2019 voters. 16% of UK adults oppose it.
Gig economy rights: 6 in 10 (62%) support giving those working in the gig economy new rights and protections such as sick pay and holiday pay – including 59% of Conservative 2019 voters. In contrast, just 6% of UK adults oppose it.
Ban on fire and rehire: 2 in 3 (67%) support a ban fire and rehire – including 64% of Conservative 2019 voters. In contrast, 17% of UK adults oppose it.
Ban on zero hours contracts: 6 in 10 (63%) support a ban zero hours contracts – including 60% of Conservative 2019 voters. In contrast, 14% of UK adults oppose it.
Union access to workplaces: Over half (51%) support giving trade unions a right to access any workplace to tell workers about the benefits of joining a trade union – including 4 in 10 (38%) Conservative 2019 voters. In contrast, 17% of UK adults oppose it.
The TUC said this showed “overwhelming support” for the Labour agenda.
As Labour discovered in 2019, the popularity of measures in a party’s manifesto (measured by polling) doesn’t necessarily mean that the public will vote for it. A lot depends on the credibility of the leaders who are promising to deliver the policies. But on this measure, Labour is doing well too.
Angela Rayner to tell TUC Labour policies can deliver proper levelling up and that Tory version is ‘sham and scam’
Good morning. One of the signs of confidence in a political party is when it can successfully appropriate the slogans of its opponents and today we are going to see another example of that from Labour. Keir Starmer did it last year when he declared that he would Make Brexit Work. And today, in her speech to the TUC conference, Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, will insist that Labour has the policies that could deliver proper levelling up.
She will argue that having workers in unionised jobs helps levelling up. And she will argue that the Tory version of the policy – dreamed up by Boris Johnson, and half-heartedly maintained by his successors – has been “a sham and a scam”.
Rayner was made shadow levelling up secretary in last week’s shadow cabinet reshuffle and this is her first speech in this role.
According to extracts released in advance, she will say:
As a young single mum, it was a Labour government that levelled the playing field for me. When I most needed it, a council house gave me my son a secure home instead of surfing sofas. That in turn meant I could go out and find the job that I built a life upon. The minimum wage meant I earned more. A local authority job gave me better skills at work, and a Sure Start centre better skills as a parent. And joining a union changed my whole life – and meant I could change other people’s lives too.
That kind of levelling up transformed my life and my prospects – because it was done right. A house and a good, unionised job, with decent conditions, a thriving community empowered to create good local services and educational opportunities – these things were my lifeline, and they are what real levelling-up mean to me.
They are what levelling up could have been and could still be.
But everything I relied upon to improve my life and my community has instead been levelled down by the Tories. With housebuilding and wages plummeting across the whole country, this government’s version of levelling up is a sham – and a scam.
Rayner has been doing an interview round this morning. I will post highlights from what she has been saying shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet.
10am: Keir Starmer takes part in a Q&A with sixth formers in Liverpool.
10.20am: Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, speaks at the Police Superintendents’ Association’s annual conference.
10.45am: Anglea Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, speaks to the TUC conference.
11am: The Social Mobility Commission publishes its annual report.
11.30am: Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
2pm: Michelle Donelan, the science secretary, hosts a roundtable at Downing Street about the online safety bill.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.