My Lords, I support Amendment 1, moved so ably by my noble friend Lord Lennie. I wish to speak specifically to Amendment 5 in the name of my noble friends Lord Hendy, Lady Blower and Lady Bryan. Why? One year ago, on the same day—24 September 2019—that the UK Supreme Court ruled the Government to have unlawfully sought to prorogue Parliament, the Prime Minister was in New York presenting his vision of a post-Brexit Britain to an audience of American business leaders. It involved undercutting European tax rates and adopting lower standards of environmental protection, consumer safety and labour rights than those set by the European Union. It foresaw a low-tax, lightly regulated haven on the European Union’s doorstep, not interested in competing on a level playing field but intent on winning any race to the bottom.
This Trade Bill seeks to take us one step closer to fulfilling the Prime Minister’s dream. It does so more by omission than by commission. As in Lena Horne’s “New Fangled Tango”,
“It’s not what you do do, it’s more what you don’t do”.
It does nothing to promote labour standards. It does not stop signatories to trade agreements seeking unfair competitive advantage by failing to comply with
International Labour Organization conventions. It provides no powers for government bodies in the UK to impose public procurement conditions on contractors requiring them to abide by UK labour law or by ILO conventions ratified by the UK. Instead of levelling up labour standards, the Bill encourages shady employers who want to undercut their more responsible rivals by shafting their workforce. It does so by turning a blind eye to bad employment practice and pretending that unfair exploitation does not exist, despite ample evidence that it is widespread from employment tribunal cases and from the daily experience of trade union representatives in workplaces nationwide.
This amendment would put a stop to any regulations implementing the Agreement on Government Procurement if that agreement could in any way hinder the ability of UK state authorities—be they central Government or the devolved Governments—to set conditions on anyone tendering for a public contract. The power of the public purse should be used to raise labour standards and to encourage compliance with global standards such as those set in ILO conventions.
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On the first working day that the Labour Government took office in May 1997, the new Minister for Europe, Douglas Henderson, went to Brussels to signal our commitment to the European Social Chapter, which had its origins in a 1989 EU agreement that passed despite dissent from Margaret Thatcher. It aimed to raise labour standards, boost skills, enhance job security and promote higher productivity. On the first working day of the newly re-elected Labour Government in June 2001, I went as a Minister to Luxembourg, where we agreed in the European Council of Ministers a new employment directive establishing fresh information and consultation rights for workers. It obliged companies to consult employees before deciding on closures and redundancies, which is surely of elementary importance. These are the kinds of initiatives—yes, European Union initiatives—that the Prime Minister wants to abandon. This is why he wants to take back control by ensuring that British workers lose control over their working environments. The Trade Bill is a false step, a chance missed to encourage world-class standards in British workplaces and our Amendment 5 seeks to prevent that calamity for British employees.