UK Politics

Opinion piece by the TUC General Secretary:

There’s no sugar-coating it: Thursday was a tough night for Labour.

Voters sent a clear message — the same one they sent at the General Election. They’re fed up with the status quo and desperately want real change. The government must listen. But it must not panic.

Labour still commands a huge parliamentary majority and a powerful electoral mandate. That mandate was won on a promise to rebuild Britain, fix broken public services, and raise living standards after 14 years of Tory failure.

That’s where the focus must remain. Now is the time to deliver — and show the country whose side Labour is on.

The Employment Rights Bill offers a powerful opportunity to do just that. This landmark legislation will transform millions of lives by banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, ending fire-and-rehire, and guaranteeing sick pay from day one.

These aren’t just good policies — they’re popular ones. They reflect the public’s deep appetite for change and stand in direct opposition to the politics of division. New polling for the TUC shows the Bill doesn’t just make moral and economic sense — it makes political sense too. Passing it will boost Labour’s standing and help cut through Nigel Farage’s hollow posturing.

Farage likes to pose as a “man of the people,” but his record tells a very different story. He ordered his MPs to vote against the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.

He supports NHS privatisation. And he idolises dangerous strongmen like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin — whose agendas threaten British jobs and security. Let’s take the fight to Farage where he’s weakest and expose him for what he is: a plastic patriot offering nothing but chaos and division.

Labour has nothing to gain from trying to out-Reform Reform. It will just bleed votes in both directions. But this government will be rewarded if it delivers the change working people are crying out for.

That means an unrelenting focus on the cost of living, rebuilding the NHS, improving schools, investing in skills and delivering an industrial strategy that brings good, secure work to every corner of the country.