RACHEL REEVES was told to put people above corporate interests after she gave another business-friendly speech today.
The shadow chancellor went to the City of London to pledge once more that the next Labour government would do nothing to rock finance capital’s boat.
“Stability is change,” she told her audience in somewhat Orwellian terms, pledging “stability underpinned by strong fiscal rules and robust, independent institutions — the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility.
“And stability of purpose enshrined in national missions to bring government and business together, to meet the challenges of the future.”
But a spokesman for left campaign group Momentum said: “Britain is broken not just because of mismanagement but because of 14 years of Tory austerity and privatisation, which have led to under-investment and public services on their knees.
“Fixing the Tories’ mess must mean renationalising our public services, including water and energy, and significantly boosting public-sector investment, funded by new wealth taxes.
“These are popular, vote-winning policies, but the Labour leadership seems more interested in appealing to corporate interests than the wishes of the British people.”
Ms Reeves offered none of that. Instead, she confirmed that zero-hours contracts could stay if workers desired such arrangements, failing to acknowledge the imbalance in workplace power.
“On zero-hour contracts after 12 weeks, if you’ve been working regular hours, you will be able to get that permanent contract. But if you want that flexibility as a worker, you can remain on the contract you’re on.
“And there’ll be nothing in Labour legislation that would stop employers from using overtime, for example, or taking workers on on a seasonal basis,” she assured her fat-cat audience.
“Businesses have got nothing to fear from the new deal for working people,” she added.
Ms Reeves also accused the Tories of “gaslighting” the public by pretending that the economy was on the mend.
“If Jeremy Hunt wants to call it a ‘technical’ recession, then I assume he’s comfortable calling it a ‘technical’ recovery,” she said. “Not a recovery for working people.”
The shadow chancellor returned to the attack on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pet project of scrapping National Insurance contributions for workers.
“A £46 billion unfunded plan to abolish National Insurance contributions — what services will they cut? What other taxes will they put up? What changes will they make to pensions?” she asked, warning of income tax having to rise by 8 per cent to plug the financial gap.
