TOP allies of Sir Keir Starmer have slammed Labour’s workers’ rights reforms as “backwards”.
Labour Together, an influential think tank that spearheaded the PM’s original leadership campaign, blasted the reforms as a “safety blanket” that “saps dynamism” from the economy.
In a secret and unpublished paper, it called on the government to ditch the workers’ rights agenda.
Labour’s new employment law was driven by disgraced ex-Deputy PM Angela Rayner.
Among its measures are day one rights to sick pay, parental and bereavement leave.
It will also allow workers to sue employers an unlimited amount for unfair dismissal.
Labour Together said: “Labour Together totally supports this week’s Employment Rights Act.
“This paper was a provocation for private discussion about how to build a political economy centred on technological change and innovation.”
Labour has been accused of being growth-killers after unemployment rose to the highest rate for nearly five years.
The jobless rate hit 5.1 per cent in the three months to October in further signs of the labour market weakening.
It marked the highest rate since early 2021, but outside the pandemic it was the highest since the first part of 2016.
Young people were particularly struggling with an 85,000 increase in those unemployed aged between 18 to 24 in the three months to October.
