Angela Rayner has issued an angry call to MPs to sit “through the night” to stop hereditary peers delaying her flagship employment rights bill.
In an outburst at the start of the latest “ping pong” between the Lords and Commons, she said: “What’s wrong with protecting people from unfair dismissal?”
The former deputy prime minister hit out at the delaying tactics of the House of Lords, with the clock ticking only days before parliament’s Christmas recess.
The bill now goes back to the Lords on Tuesday, when ministers hope peers will drop their opposition so the bill can receive royal assent by the time parliament rises on Thursday.
Ms Rayner’s attack on hereditary peers followed a government defeat in the Lords by 24 votes last week, just days before Sir Keir Starmer created 25 new Labour peers.
“What message does this send to the British public, when 33 hereditary peers have tried to defeat the government by 24 votes on a manifesto promise on sick pay, for example, which will miss the deadline for April for some of the lowest earners from some of the wealthiest?” she declared.
“Shouldn’t we get on, go through the night if we have to, and get this bill passed?”
And employment minister Kate Dearden told MPs: “We have been in ping pong for far too long, and further delay is not in anyone’s best interest.”
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At the end of an hour-long debate, MPs voted by 311 votes to 96, a majority of 215, to remove a cap on unfair dismissal compensation, overturning a vote in the Lords last week.
In its attempts to get the bill through the Lords, ministers have abandoned day one protection against unfair dismissal and, after a deal with trade unions, replaced it with a six-month qualifying period.
But at the same time the government introduced an 11th hour measure to scrap compensation caps for unfair dismissal, which is currently 52 weeks’ pay or £118,223, whichever is lower.
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Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, who has led Tory opposition to the bill, attacked the removal of a cap.
“It wasn’t in the manifesto, it wasn’t in the bill, it wasn’t in the impact assessment,” he protested.
Earlier, in a boost for the government, six business groups urged peers to back down and end the parliamentary “ping pong” between the Commons and the Lords.
The groups, including the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC), fear the six-month unfair dismissal compromise agreed with the unions could be at risk.
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“To avoid losing the six-month qualifying period, we therefore believe that now is the time for parliament to pass the bill,” they urged in a letter to Business Secretary Peter Kyle.
Mr Kyle said “all parties… have made difficult but necessary compromises to bring this bill forward” and urged “everyone” to recognise business groups and trade unions want it passed “without further delay”.
