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John McDonnell: Labour MPs should not fear party activists Labour promises to restore boss-worker balance
(about 7 hours later)
Labour MPs have nothing to fear from activists criticising their performance, the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said, arguing that a recent spate of no-confidence motions is little different from what has always happened in the party. John McDonnell has outlined Labour’s proposed employment measures to bolster the strength of unions and transform the gig economy in a speech to the Trades Union Congress.
Speaking before an address to the TUC where he will call for more rights for casual workers in the gig economy, McDonnell said he was against attempts to impose mandatory reselection for Labour MPs, but that people should not overreact to two or three incidents at local party level. The shadow chancellor said the measures would produce a new workplace environment which would boost the UK’s economy if the party formed the next government.
“I keep saying to people: don’t mistake democracy for division, because that’s what democracy is all about, people get up and say: this is what I feel,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Our programme of workplace reform will restore the balance between employer and worker, and it will do so by installing basic trade union rights in law again, modernising corporate governance structures and extending the opportunity for employees to share collectively in the benefits of ownership of their company,” he said in Manchester on Tuesday.
He dismissed the idea that Labour had been infiltrated by hardliners who were seeking to push out MPs such as Frank Field – who has now quit the party whip – and Joan Ryan, both of whom have had no-confidence motions passed against them by local parties. Rosie Duffield, the new MP for Canterbury, was also threatened with such a move. A Labour government would ban zero-hours contracts, repeal the Trade Union Act, clamp down on bogus self-employment, end private finance initiatives and set up a department for employment to implement the policies, he said. There would be a particular emphasis on workers in the gig economy.
“We now have 500,000 members. It’s a huge, mass party now, and of course those members want to get involved in discussions about policy, and also they will reflect at times their view about the performance of their local MP,” McDonnell said. Workers in jobs with flexible hours and short-term contracts could be given similar rights to those in permanent work, including eligibility for sick pay, parental pay and similar benefits, he said.
“And we’ve had a small number of incidents that we’ve seen – two or three – where parties have come together and they’ve expressed concern about the performance of their MP. That’s happened right the way through the history of our party. It’s nothing untoward.” Government contracts would only be given to firms that allowed collective bargaining and a Labour government would relaunch employee ownership funds, under which staff at larger companies would receive shares in order to give them a stake in the profits and management of their firms.
Speaking to reporters later after Treasury questions in the Commons, McDonnell declined to say whether he had sought to intervene to prevent the vote against Ryan. “I don’t want to go into private conversations that I’ve had,” he said. McDonnell also repeated a promise that Labour would spend £500bn over a decade to fix Britain’s crumbling infrastructure.
It was acceptable for local parties to express unhappiness with their MPs as long as itwas done “in a way that we’d term comradely”. This would include road and rail, digital, research and development and alternative energy sources, he said, adding that the £500bn figure was supported by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), with whom Labour was working to develop the proposals.
He added: “It’s very rare to have a policy debate spill over into something that completely divides the constituency.” Such debates, and the efforts to tackle accusations, had been “frustrating” when the hope was to outline new policies. McDonnell received a standing ovation after the speech and the Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, said the measures would be applauded across the UK.
McDonnell, who held talks at Goldman Sachs on Monday, said he hoped the party had turned a corner on antisemitism: “We’ve now, I think, cleared away the position so we can really get on with the policy debate.” “It is simply not right for the sixth richest country on earth to have allowed a situation to develop whereby a worker only knows if he or she will earn a wage that day when they get a text message to tell them that they have a shift,” McCluskey said.
At a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) on Monday evening, Jeremy Corbyn urged his colleagues to “turn our fire outwards”, but faced criticism when he declined to directly support Duffield, the MP unexpectedly elected on a landslide swing in the 2017 election. Duffield faced criticism from some local party members for attending a demonstration in March opposing antisemitism in Labour. Paddy Lillis, the general secretary of the shopworkers union Usdaw, said: “It is clear that Labour fully understands the problems low-paid workers have in getting enough hours to make a weekly wage they can live on.”
Asked about a proposal by the Corbyn-supporting Momentum group to replace the existing system for reselecting MPs, known as the trigger ballot, with a method by which they would have to actively seek approval from local members, McDonnell told Today this would be debated at the party conference this month. A CBI spokesman said the group would examine McDonnell’s proposals. “The CBI backs investment in infrastructure to help drive up UK productivity, but this must be done within the constraints of sustainable public finances. It’s not clear that Labour’s proposals meet this test.”
“I prefer the existing system, the trigger ballot system,” McDonnell said. “Some MPs are saying that needs to be slightly reformed, and I can see there’s a need for reform, but I prefer the existing system. I actually think that’s what will hold as well.” Earlier in the day, McDonnell dismissed the idea that Labour had been infiltrated by hardliners who were seeking to push out MPs such as Frank Field – who has now quit the party whip – and Joan Ryan, both of whom have had no-confidence motions passed against them by local parties. Rosie Duffield, the new MP for Canterbury, was also threatened with such a move.
He added: “There’s nothing in this that is in any way different from what’s gone on in the past. MPs are always going to be held to account. We’ve now got a much larger membership – thank goodness they want to get really involved with the democratic debate of our party. And I welcome that.” “We now have 500,000 members,” McDonnell said. “It’s a huge, mass party now, and of course those members want to get involved in discussions about policy, and also they will reflect at times their view about the performance of their local MP.”
The shadow chancellor’s speech on Tuesday at the TUC will focus on Labour plans to give gig economy workers the same employment rights as staff workers. “We’ve got to take a clear view now that if we want people treated fairly at work, they should have equal rights,” he said. One senior Unite official said MPs who faced deselection threats were at fault for failing to back Jeremy Corbyn’s policies.
Asked if this could reduce the number of jobs on offer, McDonnell said: “This is the argument that’s put up by people who are opposed to any form of extension of rights. I think now we’re reaching levels of insecurity within our economy, about employment, that are almost like going back to the 1930s.” At a fringe TUC meeting, Howard Beckett, an assistant general secretary who has been tipped as a possible future leader of the union, said: “For those who got a vote of no confidence, it’s very much been with regard to their own voting record – people who abstained over the welfare bill, people who have repeatedly voted against the wishes of their electorate and use Brexit in a way that undermines the position of the party.
In extracts of the speech released in advance, McDonnell was to criticise the government’s limited response to the report on casual work by Matthew Taylor, a former adviser to Tony Blair, which was published last year. “The biggest example is with respect to Frank Field’s recent resignation – undoubtedly the bulk of his constituents had a vote of no confidence in Frank Field because he voted with the government whenever there was an opportunity to bring down a government that believes in austerity.”
“The answers to the gig economy won’t be found in the pages of the government’s Taylor report or in the months of consultation that have followed,” he will say. Gig economy
John McDonnellJohn McDonnell
Zero-hours contracts
Corporate governance
Work & careers
LabourLabour
TUC
Jeremy Corbyn
Gig economy
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