Should employers brace for the arrival of Banter Police? April 16, 2025 On his first day in office following Labour’s election victory last summer, Keir Starmer promised to provide the country with “a politics that treads a little lighter on all of our lives.” In hindsight, this seductive proposition could mean different things to different people. At the time, I optimistically took it as a promise to [...]
Labour’s own policies undermine their ‘welfare to work’ agenda April 1, 2025 The government has made many mistakes since coming to office, but the Chancellor deserves some credit for not breaking her fiscal rules at the first opportunity. The demands from various groups (and various wings of her own party) for more borrowing or exempting certain measures from the fiscal rules were ruthlessly ignored at the Spring [...]
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill is a howler that will hammer jobs March 31, 2025 Employment rights is always a balancing act between businesses and workers, but Labour’s legislation swings too far in one direction, says Karen Jackson As an employment discrimination lawyer I’ve devoted my legal career to protecting the rights of workers from discrimination and harassment in the workplace. I see the harsh reality of what really goes [...]
If the world really has changed, Chancellor, then drop your tax hikes March 26, 2025 Rachel Reeves has one of the most demanding, high profile and exhausting jobs in the country, and so – at the very least – we should forgive her for taking some freebie tickets to a Sabrina Carpenter concert. She’s had very few good weeks since entering office and the least she deserves is a good [...]
Week in Business: Is Keir Starmer leading the UK into recession? March 20, 2025 Following the PM's punchy op-ed in City AM, Editor Christian May gives his reaction to Starmer's article and puts the Prime Minister's prose in context.
The Capitalist: Madders’ badders, desk politics and Volkswagen’s sausage boom March 13, 2025 Justin Madders slips up, desks become status symbols and Volkswagen celebrates sausages sales. That and more in this week's The Capitalist.
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill is ignoring the voice of business March 11, 2025 Labour's Employment Rights Bill will stop businesses taking chances on those who need them most, writes Michael Lorimer.
Tories call on Labour to abandon flagship Employment Rights Bill March 10, 2025 The Labour government’s controversial Employment Rights Bill returns to Parliament on Tuesday when it will face a fresh assault from Tory MPs, with shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith claiming the Bill will “take Britain back to the dark days of the 1970s.” Labour’s flagship legislation aims to boost protections against unfair dismissal, improve conditions for [...]
A win on the world stage masks mounting trouble at home March 4, 2025 Keir Starmer has won plaudits for his decision to increase defence spending (albeit by less than the amount he’s given Ed Miliband to run a pretend energy company) and voters appear to be firmly behind the PM’s decision to fund this modest splurge by raiding the international development budget. The latest City AM Freshwater Strategy [...]
Ministers expected to axe ‘right to switch off’ in coming week March 2, 2025 Ministers are expected to axe plans to give people a right to “switch off” outside work hours, reports have suggested. The policy was a central part of Sir Keir Starmer’s manifesto promise of a “New Deal for Working People” aimed at strengthening employment rights. It did not appear in the Employment Bill which is currently [...]