Paul Nowak on Burnham’s challenge to deliver on the cost of living
Andy Burnham’s promise to rebalance political and economic power gives real hope to working people and trade unions alike. From its commitment to greater public control of utilities to the focus on reindustrialisation, his new administration has grasped the need for fundamental change. The TUC and our 47 unions want to work with the PM and ministers to make good on these promises.
As the PM understands only too well, the government must address some huge challenges – and fast. The cost-of-living crisis continues to hammer workers and their families. A record number of young people are not in employment, education or training, a scandalous waste of human talent and economic potential. And with overseas actors using donations to buy political influence in the UK, trust in mainstream politics hangs by a thread.
The good news is the government has hit the ground running. The TUC welcomed the decision to cut VAT on electricity bills and reduce bus fares, as well as cuts to business rates for the hospitality industry. But as we approach the autumn, we’ll be urging ministers to go further by introducing a new social energy tariff to slash bills, funded by raising the bank surcharge. We’ll continue to press for new taxes on obscene wealth to rebuild our public services. And we’ll be arguing for big cuts to industrial energy costs to give our manufacturers the chance to compete on a level playing field.
Labour must deliver change amidst a complex, volatile and dangerous global environment. Devastating conflicts continue to rage in Ukraine and Sudan, while the people of Gaza labour under a deeply flawed and unjust peace. As feared, Donald Trump has unleashed chaos around the world, acting with impunity in Venezuela, threatening Greenland and Cuba, ripping up long-standing global alliances, and imposing punitive tariffs. His illegal war in Iran with Benjamin Netanyahu has killed thousands of innocent civilians and sent shockwaves around the global economy.
With the UK still facing a big hit from “Trumpflation”, Andy Burnham’s government must pull out all the stops to protect workers, get living standards rising and rebuild our economy and public services. This must be a reset moment, with the new PM showing working people that this government is unapologetically on their side. Already, the wealthy and powerful – and their backers in the right-wing press – are trying to water down Labour’s agenda. The new occupant in Downing Street must face up to those vested interests – or face the wrath of voters.
As the voice of working people in every sector of the economy and every part of the country, trade unions must be at the heart of the conversation about national renewal. I am encouraged by the government’s commitment to giving organised labour a proper say in shaping the economic and political change Britain needs. The PM has rightly talked about the corrosive impact of privatising economic power over the past 40 years, recognising that strong unions are fundamental to reversing this pernicious trend. Together, we must make a meaningful break with an economy and a way of doing politics that too many people feel isn’t working for them.
These are exciting times for the trade union movement, with the latest figures showing our membership up by almost 200,000. Last December, we won a historic victory when the Employment Rights Bill became the Employment Rights Act, delivering a raft of advances for workers and their unions. We continue to press ministers to resist business lobbying to weaken protections and instead deliver the full-strength laws we have been promised. And more broadly, we are calling for the full implementation of the Make Work Pay agenda – including the insourcing of jobs and services contracted-out to the private sector.
Fail to act, and the alternative is clear: the populist and far right are gaining ground with millions of voters. That’s why the TUC has set out our vision of a fair, managed, values-based migration system. It’s why we’re exposing the vast gulf between what Reform says and what they would do – repealing the ERA and Equality Act and attacking public sector pay and pensions. And it’s why we’ve launched our Unity Works campaign, engaging our members around a message of hope and showing that together we can win change.
Our asks are straightforward: better jobs, rights and services; fair taxes; and cleaner politics. On the latter, we want more transparency and accountability in our politics and political funding, so wealth, power and money cannot subvert our democracy. It’s time to clean up our politics and time to ensure politics delivers for working people.
Throughout our history, the trade union and labour movement’s job has always been to give working people hope, the sense that together we can win a better future. As Andy Burnham recognises, that task has never been more urgent than now.