Overview
- The unpublished Labour Together paper proposes scrapping about 80% of the Employment Rights Bill in favor of looser hiring and firing rules plus expanded unemployment insurance.
- It suggests funding six months of payments worth 80% of prior salary through higher employer taxes and small worker contributions, arguing this would cost firms less than compliance with the bill.
- The document was circulated among Labour MPs this week, and the think tank has acknowledged producing it.
- Labour Together says the paper looks to the long term rather than current policy and reiterates support for the Employment Rights Act.
- Beyond labor rules, the paper urges shifting state capital spending away from the Southeast, boosting public R&D to around 1% of GDP, and backing the Oxford–Cambridge corridor and major northern cities.