LABOUR has a chance to reset its relationship with working-class people with a new prime minister and should start by delivering a “full-fat” version of the Employment Rights Act, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak believes.

“We’ve still got lots of consultations to work through on things like the right to guaranteed hours, the right to trade union access to workplaces. There is no value at all in watering down that legislation because of vested interests in the employers’ lobby, who often represent the worst of business.

“Delivering that Act in full in a way that has real bite in workplaces, so people can feel the difference, is the right thing to do — and it will also help Labour win the next election. The reality is that the Employment Rights Act is popular with voters, whether they voted Labour, Reform, Green or Tory.”

An MRP poll commissioned by the TUC and Hope Not Hate in March found overwhelming support for the Act’s flagship policies, with 77 per cent supporting a ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts, 81 per cent a ban on fire and rehire and 66 per cent the right to sick pay from day one.

“The vested interests will always rail against any improvement in employment rights. The new prime minister has got to drown out that noise and listen to the voices of working people.”

Nowak spoke to the Morning Star at the Durham Miners’ Gala, a huge celebration of working-class tradition and socialist politics — but at the heart of a region where Reform has swept the board in recent elections.

With Nigel Farage now under intense scrutiny over dodgy donors and his Clacton by-election gimmick having apparently backfired with only assorted fascists and a joke candidate participating, have the wheels come off that bandwagon?

“I’m not complacent about that at all. I’m very worried about Reform and the populist and far right.

“There is a direct political thread from Nigel Farage to the likes of Tommy Robinson. You saw how Farage held his emergency press conference at eight in the morning to exploit the death of Henry Nowak — after his family had specifically asked politicians not to do that — and 12 hours later Robinson’s got the thugs out on the streets in Southampton.

“I understand why people feel frustrated with mainstream politics, and feel that change hasn’t been delivered. That’s why Labour has lost people’s confidence so quickly despite having such a big majority,” he says, referring to the collapse of Keir Starmer’s premiership.

“The government can be proud of some of what it’s done over the last couple of years, like the Employment Rights Act, investment in the NHS, nationalising British Steel or the railways, lifting the two-child benefit cap.

“But all too often it was overshadowed by self-inflicted mistakes, starting with the winter fuel payments, the botched welfare reform bid, the appointment of Peter Mandelson.

“But fundamentally, they just didn’t do enough. We’re very clear that the new prime minister, likely to be Andy Burnham, needs to use his first 100 days to show people he’s on their side, the side of working-class people and communities.

“He should see unions not as political organisations to be managed, but as the voice of working people, and we should be at the table when they talk about the big issues like the transition to net zero or how we cope with AI, how we shape the economy in a way that works for people.

“Andy’s got a good track record up in Greater Manchester, with things like the Good Employment Charter where he brought unions and employers together to think about how we improve the quality of work.

“I hope that Labour can win the next election, and that Reform gets nowhere near Downing Street, but that’s not going to happen just because we hope it somehow derails itself. It requires a Labour government proving it can deliver change, it requires us building a better, stronger trade union movement and to engage our members in workplaces.”

But is standing up to Reform possible when the Westminster consensus insists our closest ally is the United States — whose current administration actively supports the far right on our streets, Vice-President JD Vance regularly weighing in on their side in British domestic politics and tycoon Elon Musk helping fund and promote fascists?

“We need to have an honest relationship with the US, and I think what has happened over the last 12-18 months is proof positive that we also need a stronger relationship with the European Union and other international allies.”

Is it wise to reopen the whole EU question though, having seen how Brexit split the left and working-class communities?

“It would be toxic if we were saying ‘let’s have another referendum,’ ‘let’s rejoin the European Union.’

“That’s not what we’re saying and not the TUC position. All our polling shows that even those who voted for Brexit think we’ve got a bad Brexit deal. Boris Johnson left behind a wreckage of a legacy in terms of our relationship with Europe. It’s right that the government’s trying to build a closer, more positive working relationship — it’s important for British workers in sectors like automotive, chemicals.”

Another key question on international politics is the international far right, buoyed by the far-right government in the US.

“There are definitely direct funding links between far-right elements in the States, in the UK and around the world.

“One thing we’re doing is working with unions in Brazil, in Germany, in Italy and elsewhere, to think collectively about how we map out those far-right actors and what works in taking them on.

“We need to clean up our politics — and stop those based abroad from being able to fund political parties in the UK. It makes no sense whatsoever that Christopher Harborne, based in Thailand, can give Nigel Farage £5 million.

“And we need proper regulation of social media.”

The influence of the US is also felt in the militarisation drive sweeping Europe in response to Donald Trump’s demand that we raise military spending to 5 per cent of GDP. This itself has deeply divided unions.

But Nowak thinks there are points of agreement: “I don’t think anybody in the British trade union movement believes our defence policy should be set by the White House.

“And I think everybody would agree that Donald Trump has proved the US is an unreliable ally.

“That probably will have implications for national security. I don’t accept that it’s national security or the NHS or spending on education. We need to be taxing wealth and windfall profits.

“Of course unions will have different positions, reflecting their different memberships. At the TUC we focus on the things that unite us.” He was recently at an event in Dublin with the European Trade Union Federation, looking at the trade union role in promoting peace and encouraging governments to resolve differences through multilateral institutions, “rather than launching illegal wars in Iran or anywhere else.”