Andy Burnham has one shot to change the fortunes of this Labour Government. A lot of working-class people are past caring about what happens in Westminster. Only a fundamental shift in policy and approach will have any chance of breaking through.
To deliver, Andy will need to do more than talk about change. He will need to ignore the “computer says no” brigade. It won’t be easy to withstand pressure from disgruntled former Cabinet ministers or the siren voices of big finance. But to succeed he must. If he doesn’t, it will become business as usual, fumbling along the road of decline, blaming foreign conflicts, migrants or the disabled for all society’s woes.
Economic Agenda for the Working Class
To build a programme of hope, this Government must learn to embrace a different economic agenda, one where the working class are at the front of the queue, not at the back. For forty years, governments of all political shades have been happy to make “tough choices” when everyday people pay the price. But when it comes to the wealthy or the profiteers, we have heard nothing.
It was private debt and greed that created the banking crisis in 2008, yet workers and communities paid for it with ten years of austerity. During COVID, many firms and individuals made vast profits on the back of misery, and again everyday people have paid with higher taxes. It is time that those who have benefitted from 40 years of Thatcherism now help pay for the huge costs of that economic experiment.
Short and Long-Term Plan
We need a short and long-term plan for Britain. First, we want to see the personal tax threshold raised to put more money back in people’s pockets and drive more spending in our economy. Freezing it year after year has punished the working class for crises not of their making. We want to see those that have caused the problem pay for it, starting with taxes on extraordinary wealth and excess profits.
Second, after decades of empty rhetoric from every Government, we want to see a revolution in our approach to industrial strategy. We must grasp the nettle of investing in the jobs of tomorrow. We face enormous challenges like AI and climate change. But if we invest now around our incredible research capacity and have a concrete jobs’ plan, we can be the leaders of a new world, not a nation of decline.
Protecting Bus Workers
In May of this year, bus driver Sergei Krajev was murdered while working his shift. A husband, father, and grandfather that went out to work and never came home. During COVID, bus workers went out to work every day while their bosses were safe at home. They were told then that they were key workers. If they were crucial then, they should be treated as such now.
That is why Unite is leading the fight, in Sergei’s memory, to deliver changes to current legislation. We are seeking to extend legislative protection from assaults which currently apply to emergency workers and retail staff, to include bus workers, along with improving enforcement and legal duties on employers to provide safe working conditions. This type of important action doesn’t grab the headlines but will save lives.
Reforming Social Care
I am pleased to hear Andy Burnham talk about the importance of social care. The current system is letting down workers and older people. Four in five of us will need care. Yet, instead of investing in people, successive governments have allowed private equity firms and shareholders to strip millions out of a service that should exist to care for people, not generate profits.
Our care workforce has waited long enough. Older people have waited long enough. Our Unite campaign is demanding that the care system stop being used as a cash cow – an end to the profiteering, fair funding, decent wages, through the development of a national care service and legislative power to hold private firms accountable for care failures. If the new Government is serious about fixing Britain’s broken care system, it must take on the profiteers and put people before profit.
NHS Holiday Pay
NHS staff are under pressure. The record high number of vacancies is certainly not helping, and the pressure of increased workloads is causing some NHS workers to leave. Overtime is essentially built-in so that the system can function. The fact that some NHS employers are now systematically short-changing holiday pay is an absolute disgrace.
This affects many NHS workers, including those working shifts, weekends, and unsocial hours. It is both unacceptable and unlawful. That’s why this month I launched a legal campaign on behalf of NHS Unite members. We have been clear; pay up or we will see you in court.
False Choices Must End
The new Government has one chance to lay out a new direction for Britain. As the sixth richest economy in the world, we need to see an end to the days of pitting pensioners against the disabled or defence workers against the public sector. Everybody knows that to govern means making choices. But too often Keir Starmer’s Labour served up a plate of false choices. If we are to get out of the mess we find ourselves in, cuts cannot be on the menu. We need investment for jobs and growth - not a chainsaw.
Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival
Last weekend I had the privilege of speaking at the Tolpuddle Martyrs festival. 200 years ago, a group of agricultural workers stood together and fought cuts to their pay. The grain price had dropped, and the landowners demanded workers paid for the crisis with cuts to pay. Sound familiar? Hundreds of years later, workers are still expected to pay for crisis after crisis not of their making. The system is rigged against everyday people. Now is the time for Labour to be real Labour.
