Skip to main content
Sunak considered union membership bans, leak reveals
Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union on the picket line outside Birmingham Airport. The government is reported to have considered targeting Border Force workers for the ban.

A BAN on trade union membership for some workers was among proposals for the government’s next attack on workers’ rights, according to emails leaked from No 10.

In a move reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s ban on trade union membership at the government’s intelligence gathering base GCHQ in 1984, the ban was considered by the current government along with banning strike action in certain sectors and forcing unions to provide minimum levels of service during strike action, the government’s eventual choice.

The government is reported to have considered targeting Border Force workers for the ban.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Newspaper proprietor Rupert Murdoch holds copies of The Sun and Times papers, at his new high technology print works in Wapping, East London
Workers' Rights / 24 January 2026
24 January 2026

On the 40th anniversary of the Wapping dispute, this Morning Star special supplement traces the long-planned conspiracy that led to the mass sackings of printworkers in 1986 – a struggle whose unresolved injustices still demand redress today, writes ANN FIELD

RIGHTS NEEDED: Prison officers face a uniquely tough working environment and must be able to flex their industrial muscle
TUC Congress 2025 / 8 September 2025
8 September 2025

Our members face serious violence, crumbling workplaces and exposure to dangerous drugs — it is outrageous we still cannot legally use our industrial muscle to fight back and defend ourselves, writes STEVE GILLAN

Junior doctors on the picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital, London, during their continuing dispute over pay. Picture date: Thursday June 27, 2024
Workers' Rights / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR

Workers' Rights / 1 July 2025
1 July 2025