Angela Rayner will push the Government to speed up the introduction of her workers’ rights bonanza after ministers watered down a key part of it.
The former deputy prime minister will on Wednesday stage her first policy intervention since she dramatically quit the Cabinet in September over the tax bill due on her seaside home.
She is making her move just days after the Labour Government abandoned the manifesto commitment to introduce ‘day one’ protection from unfair dismissal.
Under the climbdown agreed with trade unions and business groups in order to get the Employment Rights Bill past a stand-off in the House of Lords, staff will get the right to claim unfair dismissal after six months instead of the current two years.
However the change is not due to come into force in 2027, prompting Ms Rayner and her former ministerial colleague Justin Madders to table a last-minute amendment that would see it introduced in 2026 instead.
She will argue that because the compromise merely shortens the existing qualifying period, it does not require consultation and so can be introduced quickly.
MPs are expected to vote on her amendment next week and some hope the Government will accept it.
One Labour MP told The Guardian: ‘There’s nothing now stopping the government from delivering at pace.’
An ally of Ms Rayner said: ‘As key architects of the Bill, they know it inside out.
‘They will be spearheading efforts to ensure the best possible package of reform is delivered and implemented to an ambitious timeline.
‘They are expected to work with Labour colleagues to push for further commitments from ministers.’
Another vowed that Labour MPs will not allow the bill to be watered down any further.
They said: ‘This can’t be the thin of the wedge and we won’t let it be. Not only can there be no more watering down, but there is now growing appetite on the Labour benches to go further and faster in delivering tangible rights at work that people can feel in their day-to-day lives. We’re drawing a line in the sand.’
It comes after her ally Mr Madders took a swipe at ‘unelected peers’ who were holding up the legislation as well as the ministers who watered it down.
He told LBC on Sunday: ‘I think it would be better all round if members of the Cabinet made the argument why they’ve had to do it rather than pretend it is not a manifesto breach.’
Asked if Ms Rayner was ‘unhappy’, he replied: ‘Well, I think you’d have to ask her that.
‘But when we’ve all gone out and campaigned on something for a number of years, we’re committed to, we’ve promised we’d deliver it and we don’t, I think you can probably assume she isn’t doing cartwheels over this.’
