Keir Starmer was roasted for heaping red tape and costs on businesses during a bruising PMQs today.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch contrasted the premier’s promises on deregulation with the burdens being added by new employment rights legislation.
She branded the proposed law an ‘adventure playground for lawyers’, and warned it will stop companies from hiring.
But Sir Keir hit back that ‘good work rights are consistent with growth’, and highlighted the Chancellor’s backing for Heathrow as evidence of the government’s determination.
The clashes came amid more signs of stress on the high street in the wake of the Budget – which included a huge national insurance raid on employers.
Lloyds Banking Group has announced it will close 136 high street branches in a massive blow for customers.
The finance giant will shut 61 Lloyds, 61 Halifax and 14 Bank of Scotland branches between May this year and March 2026.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch contrasted Keir Starmer’s (pictured) promises on deregulation with the burdens being added by new employment rights legislation
At PMQs, Ms Badenoch (pictured) branded the proposed law an ‘adventure playground for lawyers’, and warned it will stop companies from hiring
Tacking Sir Keir at PMQs, Ms Badenoch said: ‘Yesterday, the Prime Minister set his growth test. He said, ‘if a policy is good for growth, the answer is yes. If it’s not, the answer is no’. This morning the Chancellor embraced a series of Conservative policies, although many are welcome, they will take years to deliver.
‘When Conservatives left office, we had the fastest economic growth in the G7. But what is the Government doing for growth now? It’s destroying it. Let’s look at the Employment Bill. The Government’s own figures say it will cost businesses £5 billion a year. It clearly fails the Prime Minister’s growth test. Will he drop it?’
Sir Keir replied: ‘I think the proposition they left a golden inheritance was tested on the fourth of July.’
He added: ‘She asked what we’re doing, the ONS say we got the highest investment for 19 years. PwC, second best place to invest in the world. IMF, upgrading growth predicted, fastest growing major economy in Europe. Wages up, inflation down.
‘There’s more to do with reforming planning and regulation, building the new homes that we need, supporting a third runway at Heathrow, and as she admitted to the CBI in November, ‘there’s no point in me just complaining about Labour’, she said, ‘it’s obvious that we Conservatives lost the confidence of business’. We’re not taking lectures from them.’
Ms Badenoch highlighted warnings from the Federation of Small Businesses that 92 per cent of small employers were concerned about the Employment Bill.
‘Clauses one through six make it harder for business to hire new employees, often young people looking for their first job,’ she said.
‘This isn’t an employment Bill. It’s an unemployment Bill. Given these clauses, will he drop his Bill and show that he is not anti-growth?’
Ms Badenoch said the law would mean ‘a new employee can start a new job in the morning and take their employer to a tribunal that afternoon’.
‘It is no wonder that this Bill has been called an adventure playground for lawyers. This Bill is terrible for business, but it is great employment for lawyers,’ she said.
‘I know the Prime Minister loves the legal profession, but he needs to stop being a lawyer and start being a leader. This is another measure in the Bill that fails his growth test. Will he show some leadership and drop it?’
Sir Keir said: ‘We believe in giving people proper dignity and protection at work. That’s why we’re proud of our record of supporting workers. They consistently vote against any protection for working people.
The clashes came amid more signs of stress on the high street in the wake of the Budget – which included a huge national insurance raid on employers
‘We are driving growth on behalf of working people. Good work rights are consistent with growth, every good business knows that, and on top of the planning reform, the building of houses, supporting aviation, the Chancellor this morning spoke of the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor, redeveloping Old Trafford and manufacturing at East Midlands Airport, we want to grow the economy, the only policies, (Mrs Badenoch’s) got is to shrink pensions.’
The PM also swiped: ‘I understand she likes straight talking, she is talking absolutely nonsense. She knows that anybody that understands anything about the Bill or any employment law will know you can’t start in the morning and go to the tribunal in the afternoon.
‘Now, we know she is not a lawyer, she is clearly not a leader, if she keeps on like this, she is going to be the next lettuce.’
