The government has U-turned on its manifesto commitment to offer all workers protection against unfair dismissal from their first day in a job. Ministers now plan to introduce the right after six months instead, following concerns from business groups. The government argued it was making the climbdown to stop its employment legislation being delayed in the House of Lords, where it has run into opposition.
The manifesto tax pledge has cost working people. Having previously hinted at raising income tax rates, the chancellor chose instead to freeze personal tax thresholds for three more years. A 1p tax rise would have raised the same amount of money but been less costly than freezing thresholds for anyone with an income below 35,000, she said.
A senior executive at TikTok helped write the Labour manifesto while still working at the Chinese-owned technology company, he has said. James Lyons, who left his post as Keir Starmer's director strategic communications last week, wrote on LinkedIn that he was asked last year to help write the party's election pledges while he was still working for the social media platform. Kiran Stacey has the story here.
With the public sector spending an estimated £5 billion a year on food, the pledge was billed as a potential multi-billion-pound lifeline for farmers. However, data obtained by the Countryside Alliance shows that only two government departments currently source a majority of their food from Britain: the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (80%) and the Department of Health and Social Care (72%).
