Employment Rights Bill

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Excerpts

Report stage
Wednesday 23rd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goddard of Stockport (LD)]

The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, will say “Hear, hear” no more because we cannot support Amendment 149A, which is a new amendment that proposes removing Clause 72. I will tell the House why we cannot support it. On Monday I supported the noble Lords, Lord Hunt and Lord Sharpe, when we were very critical of the Government for tabling amendments on Report. People nodded wisely and said that it is not a good thing to do, yet this amendment was tabled today or yesterday. It has had no time for discussion or debate. It has had no time for people to understand its nuances. We know that it takes a big chunk out of the Government’s manifesto pledge Bill, and that does not seem fair to me.

In our view, legislation should be done through constructive amendments. If you do that, you end up with a compromise, whether it is through ping-pong or by persuading the Minister to change their point of view. It is almost like taking the sledgehammer again, and that is not good politics. It is not good for the House, and it is not good for Members. Lots of Members come into these debates, not all the time, and try to get a flavour of what is going on. They might hear that Amendment 149A, which sounds fairly reasonable, has been put forward. It is not fairly reasonable; it takes an enormous chunk out of the Government’s Bill, and that cannot be right for democracy. I have criticised Ministers many times, but we should be mindful that it is in the manifesto and move legislation via amendments rather than trying to remove huge chunks of legislation. On that basis, we will not support Amendment 149A.

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, on balance, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Goddard. I will speak to Amendments 148, 149A, 149ZA and 150 standing in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Hunt of Wirral. Before I do that, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Burns, for his common- sense amendment. We think political contributions must always be a matter of choice, not a default. That seems to us a fair and democratic principle, and the Government ought to listen. I was particularly pleased to see that the Attorney-General was in his place to listen to the excellent arguments advanced by my noble friend Lady Cash, which all pertain to international law. I hope he was paying attention. If the noble Lord, Lord Burns, decides to test the opinion of the House, we will support him.

I turn to Amendment 148. On 8 July, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, remarked rather pointedly that despite the fact that the majority of resident doctors did not vote for strike action, the BMA is now preparing for strike action and it is completely unnecessary. Who can blame him? Strikes are happening under the existing law, and now this Government propose to remove the 50% threshold, the very last democratic safeguard that ensures that strikes have substantial backing. What would that do? It would significantly lower the bar for strike action and allow a smaller minority to cripple vital public services. It is worth bearing in mind that it is public services we are talking about because that is where the bulk of union members are. One has to wonder whether the Government agree with their own Health Secretary. If they do, why are they proposing this? If they do not, will Mr Streeting be invited to correct his error on the record? Do the Government share the disappointment that he expressed on 8 July about the BMA’s strike action or was that simply a performance for the cameras, a convenient public relations stunt, while others quietly dismantle safeguards and seek to make extremists more powerful?

On Amendments 149A and 150A, I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Jackson of Peterborough for his words. Earlier this month, Norman Tebbit, Lord Tebbit, died after a long period of illness. One of his enduring legacies was his role in turning around an unemployment crisis that peaked at 11.5% in 1982. Thanks to the reforms introduced on his watch, the rate fell sharply thereafter. The success was later acknowledged even by the Blair and Brown Governments, who accepted the new consensus, a fair balance between workers’ rights and the flexibility that businesses need. It was the late Lord Tebbit who warned us that we do not intend to see again the scenes of intimidation, mass picketing and political strikes that disfigured our country in the 1970s. That warning remains as relevant today as it was then. Supervision of picketing is an essential safeguard. It ensures that industrial action remains peaceful, lawful and accountable. Removing these provisions, as the Government propose, risks returning us to the chaos and intimidation of the past, as described so ably by my noble friend Lord Evans of Rainow.

Amendment 149ZA is crucial to protect airlines from unfair financial risk caused by conflicting notice periods. This was originally tabled in Committee by the noble Lord, Lord Hutton of Furness. He raised a timely and important issue. As he did not retable the amendment for Report, we did because, frankly, the Committee debate was very late, it was truncated, and the Minister’s response was inadequate.

I refer noble Lords to col. 1342 of Hansard on 10 June for the detailed arguments of the noble Lord, Lord Hutton, but in essence they are that, under current law, airlines must give at least 14 days’ notice of industrial action to avoid costly compensation claims under passenger rights legislation—namely, UK261—unless there are extraordinary circumstances, and a ruling of the European Court of Justice in 2019 made it clear that a strike by an airline’s own staff is not considered an extraordinary circumstance.

The amendment would therefore simply protect airlines from having to pay hundreds of millions in compensation for cancellations caused by strikes. Reducing the notice period to 10 days would expose airlines to up to four extra days of compensation liability and a serious and unavoidable financial burden that would inevitably be passed on to passengers, making family holidays even more expensive for working people. The amendment would ensure that the 14-day notice period remained for industrial action affecting airlines, and it would align industrial relations law with passenger rights and protect vital UK businesses from crippling— I will be charitable and say probably unintended—costs.

In Committee the noble Lord, Lord Katz, argued that this would represent a sectoral carve-out, but that is not a logical argument as the sector is governed by a rule that does not apply to any other. It is therefore entirely consistent with a level playing field. It is the contradiction in legislation that puts airlines at a disadvantage.

Finally, I agree fully with my noble friend Lord Leigh about seeking to maintain the requirement that trade unions should report their political expenditure in their annual returns. I shall support him too, should he wish to call a Division.

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Moved by

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom]

148: Clause 65, page 96, line 23, leave out subsection (2)
Member's explanatory statement
This probing amendment would reinstate the 50% threshold requirement for industrial action to be voted on by a trade union and seeks to probe whether the Government perceives a risk to the democratic integrity of trade union ballots for industrial action as a result of the provisions to remove the 50% requirement.

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, time and again we hear about workplace democracy from the Government Benches, and then they introduce this. So yes, I would like to test the opinion of the House.

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Moved by

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom]

149A: Leave out Clause 72

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

I would like to test the opinion of the House.