Angela Rayner has left something nasty for Keir Starmer to deal with (Image: Getty)
The deputy prime minister quit after fiddling her stamp duty bill to save ￡40,000 on her ￡800,000 seaside flat in Hove. Her exit may have secretly pleased Starmer, who never saw eye to eye with his pugnacious number two.
Plenty of voters will be delighted she’s gone. Rayner was the ultimate Marmite politician. You either loved her or loathed her. And Labour’s grassroots loved her. She was the only recognisably working-class voice in a cabinet of middle-class careerists.
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Whichever side you’re on, her rise from single mum at 16 to Westminster high office was a remarkable tale in class-ridden Britain.
Now she’s gone, although I have a sneaking suspicion she’ll be back at some point. Either way, her political legacy lingers on in the form of the Employment Rights Bill.
This sweeping law hands workers new protections from day one on the job and clamps down on zero-hours contracts.
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Trade unions can’t wait to see it pass. Rayner started political life as a union rep, and the bill hands the unions more of the power they crave.
And that’s a disaster for Starmer.
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The unions still bankroll Labour and see Rayner’s Bill as their payback. To others, it looks like a ticking time bomb primed to blow a hole in the already floundering UK economy. Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves know it too.
Giving employees full rights without any probationary period will make employers think twice before hiring untested workers.
Why take a punt on someone who could call in sick on their first day, leaving the firm with all the costs of employing them and none of the benefits?
Bosses are already wary of employing Gen Z, often stereotyped as lazy, entitled and prone to pulling sickies at the first mention of the words “mental health”.
Youth unemployment is already climbing at a terrifying rate, and this could lock even more young people out of the jobs market.
It will also make life harder for those genuinely recovering from mental health issues, as many employers won't be willing to give them a second chance, knowing they’re stuck if they relapse. Instead of creating fairness, Rayner’s reforms could lock people out of the jobs market.
And this couldn’t come at a worse time, with artificial intelligence ripping through entry-level graduate jobs.
Starmer and Reeves have already hammered workers and businesses. The ￡25billion hike in employers’ national insurance is estimated to have destroyed 174,000 jobs, with another 100,000 at risk by Christmas.
The unemployment rate has jumped from 4.3% to 4.7% since the Budget, and is heading towards 5%.
Rayner’s bomb is set to explode right in the middle of this mess. Starmer knows he needs to cut the wire.
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There is speculation that, with Rayner gone, he may try to trim the Bill’s worst excesses. But he’ll have to battle the unions at every turn.
They’ve waited decades to claw back the powers Margaret Thatcher stripped from them. This could turn into a monumental fight, with Angela Rayner the trigger.
The Employment Rights Bill isn’t just ticking away beneath Labour. It’s ticking under all of us.
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