TUC chief tells MPs Labour must “face down” business and hike taxes

Last night’s weekly meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) was addressed by TUC general secretary Paul Nowak. He called on the party to take business in hand when needed, perhaps with one eye on Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ declarations about Labour being a “pro-business” party.

He told MPs: “While any serious government in waiting needs to engage business – it also has to face down the business lobby when it gets it wrong.” Are the unions worried big business and the right might ratchet up pressure for Labour to drop its new deal for working people?

Nowak also made a not-so-subtle push for Labour to be much more radical on tax. He said those with the “broadest shoulders” must pay more to rebuild public services, capital gains and income tax should be equalised, and “thought” should be given to taxing unearned income, wealth and assets. It comes just a week after Reeves specifically ruled out either new wealth and land taxes or hiking capital gains and income tax.

With Nowak’s warnings ringing in her ears, the Shadow Chancellor has this morning been slamming new statistics showing continued decline in real wages and rising joblessness among the long-term sick, warning the “Tories continue to hold us back”.

Another kind of sickness is also in the eyeline of the very busy TUC this morning: the Covid inquiry, which kicks off today. The TUC will make a statement as core participants of the inquiry, arguing that the investigation “must take an unflinching look at how austerity left the nation dangerously exposed“.

Meanwhile, figures from across the party have been reacting to the jailing of a woman in Stoke-on-Trent who took abortion pills after the legal term limit. Stella Creasy MP called for “urgent reform”, while Nadia Whittome MP wrote that “no woman should be in prison for making decisions about her own body”. A motion to decriminalise abortion will go to the national policy forum (NPF) later this summer.

“If you are terminating after 24 weeks then it’s because of something terrible.”

“We’re talking about in this case a child that was viable”

Stella Creasy MP and academic James Mumford clash over sentencing of a woman for illegal abortion#Newsnight | https://t.co/P0zxS1DNGF pic.twitter.com/MNoDLRwLZm

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 12, 2023

Starmer said in the leadership campaign we should “take the criminal law out” of abortion, and a pledge to decriminalise featured in the 2019 manifesto. We’ve asked Labour this morning for its current stance (and will include in tomorrow’s email…).

In other news, just a few weeks ago Keir Starmer wrote that conversations over Labour’s place outside of the EU were settled. Yesterday, David Lammy asserted that despite this the EU would be Labour’s number one foreign policy priority, however, arguing for close working and dialogue with partners in Europe. Cue uproar from the likes of Lee Anderson.

This came after an interview with Sadiq Khan over the weekend during which the London mayor stated that conversations about closer ties with the EU – including, in a break from the party line, about the possibility of rejoining the single market – were already happening. Khan has form for leaning more heavily towards a form of rejoin than the party he represents, but taken in the round with Lammy’s comments, it is clear that the party is looking to Europe with wistfulness that may find more defined terms in government.

In selection news, with interviews having taken place yesterday, we can expect to see Labour’s shortlist of candidates for the Mid-Bedfordshire by-election very soon. Hustings will take place tomorrow and the candidate will be in place in time for what will surely be a busy, sunny weekend of campaigning.

And finally, Keir Starmer has a busy day today too, using a London Tech Week speech to warn disruption from AI and other technology must be “harnessed” for the public good, and not “leave some behind” as deindustrialisation once did.