Machiavellian move will enrage Rayner and the left

On Wednesday, they were cheering Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer to the rafters.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

Today, Labour backbenchers are not so happy. It’s astonishing how quickly the mood can change, but with this government and the hoops they seem to go through to get anything done, it has become normal. What’s altered is that having remained faithful, in their eyes at least, and stuck to a manifesto pledge not to raise taxes on working people, so no income tax, VAT or national insurance hikes in the Budget, Starmer has turned traitor on another. Scrapped is the pledge to introduce “day one” job protection.

This wasn’t any other voter pleaser, either, but one dear to the hearts of the left. Labour said it would pass a law enshrining the right to claim unfair dismissal after the first day in a job. That’s now gone, in favour of cutting the qualifying period to claim unfair dismissal from two years to six months.

It’s a reduction, but six months is nowhere near one day. The climbdown has been driven by Peter Kyle, the new business secretary. He succeeded Jonathan Reynolds, who, together with Angela Rayner, was the architect of the new Employment Rights Bill.

That legislation will move ahead, but with the key clause watered down. Officially, the reason for settling on six months rather than one day is that the entire bill faced months of protracted delay, with further rewriting and compromise, as Tory and Lib Dem peers promised to hamper its progress.