OPINION

       Lee Anderson and Reform UK have betrayed the only people who can hand them power (Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

       By all rights, the Employment Rights Bill should be a slam-dunk in any working-class constituency. It's the legislative equivalent of a hungover bacon butty — solid, comforting, and something you’d only reject if you’ve truly lost touch with where you came from. So why would Reform UK MPs vote against it?

       This bill, the biggest leap in employment rights in a generation, is the political love letter that post-industrial Britain has been waiting for. From banning zero-hours contracts and outlawing fire-and-rehire, to beefing up trade union rights and protecting parents and pregnant women — it’s the kind of common-sense package that would make any ex-miner’s heart beat just a little faster. But instead of backing it, Reform UK MPs decided to spit in the face of the very people they claim to represent. And that is where their mask slips.

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       Let’s talk about places like Ashfield, Doncaster, Rother Valley — towns built on coal and steel, sweat and solidarity.

       These are communities where workers didn’t just have jobs; they had unions, pride, and each other.

       The pits might be gone, but the legacy of unity is still there, etched into the terraced rows and social clubs.

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       You don't just abandon those values like an old pair of boots.

       Which makes Lee Anderson’s betrayal particularly stomach-churning.

       Here’s a bloke raised in an NUM family. His roots are so deep in the movement he probably used to teethe on a copy of The Morning Star.

       But when it came time to stand up for modern workers, nurses, care workers, school support staff, he sided with big business and the same old dogma about “freedom” and “flexibility.”

       Zero-hours contracts are “flexibility”? Only if you're the one writing the rota, not the poor sap waiting to find out if he can afford a tin of beans this week.

       Anderson and his mates in Reform have built their brand on speaking for “the real people” of Britain — the grafters, the fed-up, the left-behinds.

       But actions speak louder than angry GB News monologues. When it came time to vote, they didn't stand with the working man. They stood with the boardrooms.

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       Labour, on the other hand, backed this bill with both hands — and rightly so. It’s not just about decency. It’s about productivity, stability, and giving people a fair crack.

       How are you supposed to plan a life, start a family, get a mortgage when your boss can bin your shift the night before or fire you for not accepting worse terms?

       This bill is a blueprint for dignity. It gives workers a day-one right not to be unfairly sacked, ends the grotesque practice of 'fire and replace'; strengthens redundancy protections, and plugs disgraceful loopholes in sectors like maritime and social care.

       Oh, and it finally gives people going through menopause some workplace rights. Radical stuff, apparently, if you’re a Reform MP.

       And yes, it repeals anti-strike legislation, strengthens unions, and brings enforcement of employment rights under a single roof with the new Fair Work Agency.

       In other words: it gives ordinary people the tools to stand up to bad bosses. Which is precisely why the reactionary right froths at the mouth over it.

       Here’s the rub: you can’t get away with rhetoric forever. At some point, the people notice when you’re all talk and no trousers. Reform UK might like to swan about with their Union Flag pin badges and talk about British values, but voting down this bill shows they’ve got more in common with Thatcher than the towns she destroyed.

       Let’s not forget: when Thatcher’s wrecking ball came through the North and Midlands, it was the unions that stood in the way. And it was towns like Barnsley, Mansfield, and Durham that paid the price for daring to defy her.

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       Forty years on, the economic wounds haven’t fully healed. But what survived, against all odds, was the spirit of working-class solidarity. Now Reform wants to snuff that out too.

       The irony is almost poetic. A party that claims to be anti-elite just threw the working class under the bus. It’s like being mugged by someone wearing a “Support Your Local” hoodie. And voters will remember.

       Our people aren’t stupid. We know what side our bread’s buttered. You can shout about “wokeness” and “Brexit betrayal” until you’re blue in the face, but if you can’t back a bill that gives someone a sick day, some dignity, or the right to flexible working - then what the hell are you for?

       Labour, for all its sins and stumbles, got this one right. And they should shout it from the rooftops. This is the kind of policy that wins elections — not just because it's morally right, but because it resonates with real lives.

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       Labour backed families, carers, cleaners, and coalfield kids trying to scrape together a future. Reform backed... HR departments and CEO’s lawyers.

       History has a way of catching up with people. And when it does, Reform MPs will have to explain to the very towns they rode to Parliament on why they voted against giving people basic rights at work. Good luck with that.

       Because in places like Ashfield, people might forgive a lot - but they don’t forget betrayal.