Angela Rayner has issued an offended name to MPs to sit down “through the night” to cease hereditary friends delaying her flagship employment rights invoice.
In an outburst initially of the newest “ping pong” between the Lords and Commons, she mentioned: “What’s wrong with protecting people from unfair dismissal?”
The previous deputy prime minister hit out on the delaying techniques of the Home of Lords, with the clock ticking solely days earlier than parliament’s Christmas recess.
The invoice now goes again to the Lords on Tuesday, when ministers hope friends will drop their opposition so the invoice can obtain royal assent by the point parliament rises on Thursday.
Ms Rayner’s assault on hereditary friends adopted a authorities defeat within the Lords by 24 votes final week, simply days earlier than Sir Keir Starmer created 25 new Labour friends.
“What message does this send to the British public, when 33 hereditary peers have tried to defeat the government by 24 votes on a manifesto promise on sick pay, for example, which will miss the deadline for April for some of the lowest earners from some of the wealthiest?” she declared.
“Shouldn’t we get on, go through the night if we have to, and get this bill passed?”
And employment minister Kate Dearden informed MPs: “We have been in ping pong for far too long, and further delay is not in anyone’s best interest.”
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Rayner makes speech on Employment Rights Invoice
On the finish of an hour-long debate, MPs voted by 311 votes to 96, a majority of 215, to take away a cap on unfair dismissal compensation, overturning a vote within the Lords final week.
In its makes an attempt to get the invoice via the Lords, ministers have deserted day one safety in opposition to unfair dismissal and, after a cope with commerce unions, changed it with a six-month qualifying interval.
However on the identical time the federal government launched an eleventh hour measure to scrap compensation caps for unfair dismissal, which is at present 52 weeks’ pay or £118,223, whichever is decrease.
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Tory MP Andrew Griffith attacked plans to elevate a compensation cap. Pic: PA
Shadow enterprise secretary Andrew Griffith, who has led Tory opposition to the invoice, attacked the elimination of a cap.
“It wasn’t in the manifesto, it wasn’t in the bill, it wasn’t in the impact assessment,” he protested.
Earlier, in a lift for the federal government, six enterprise teams urged friends to again down and finish the parliamentary “ping pong” between the Commons and the Lords.
The teams, together with the Confederation of British Business (CBI) and the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC), concern the six-month unfair dismissal compromise agreed with the unions might be in danger.
“To avoid losing the six-month qualifying period, we therefore believe that now is the time for parliament to pass the bill,” they urged in a letter to Enterprise Secretary Peter Kyle.
Mr Kyle mentioned “all parties… have made difficult but necessary compromises to bring this bill forward” and urged “everyone” to recognise enterprise teams and commerce unions need it handed “without further delay”.
