LABOUR denied media reports today that it was diluting its proposed new deal for workers’ rights.

A spokesman insisted there would be “no watering down” of the party’s plans despite detailed suggestions that it was intent on appeasing business concerns.

Labour representatives pointed to remarks made by leader Sir Keir Starmer at this week’s conference of shopworkers’ union Usdaw, where he said the “draft legislation is ready to go” as thrashed out at the party’s policy forum.

However, the Financial Times reported a series of concessions to business being contemplated, with corporate lobbyists now being “pretty relaxed” about the proposals.

The report suggested that several hitherto firm proposals would become subject to consultation with business after an election instead.

Some parts of the original package as launched in 2021 have already been dropped, including “fair pay agreements” covering all industrial sectors — this will now apply to the social care sector alone.

A proposed ban on zero-hours contracts has been replaced by a right to a contract reflecting a worker’s regular work pattern in the preceding period.

Rail union RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Any dilution of the new deal for workers is wholly unacceptable.

“The new deal for workers is popular among trades unionists and is an asset at the ballot box.

“Working people need a Labour government that will protect them from the excesses of business, not one that kowtows to the vested interests of the super-rich.

“Any attempt to water down this popular policy will be met with a robust response from the entire trade union movement.”

A spokesman for left campaign group Momentum said: “For 14 years the Tories have taken a sledgehammer to workers’ rights, while enriching a few at the very top.

“The new deal for working people is both popular and urgently needed.

“So it’s beyond disappointing to see Starmer … capitulate to corporate interests and massively water it down, in yet another major U-turn.

“Once again, the labour movement and the public are united behind a desire for transformative change, but they are being let down by a Labour leadership more interested in pleasing big business.”

The new deal has become totemic, representing the last significant progressive Labour policy, other than public rail ownership, not diluted or abandoned completely by the Starmer leadership.