Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026

Lord Balfe Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Balfe (Con)]

My Lords, I have been a trade union member for just over 67 years. That is longer than my membership of the two political parties put together. For the past 13 years, while I have been in this House, at different times I have been the president of the British Dietetic Association—a TUC-affiliated union—and BALPA, the pilots’ union, which is also TUC-affiliated. The image that people try to give that these are somehow illegitimate organisations is totally wrong. Most of their executive time is spent sorting out the day-to-day problems of members—that is what they are there for.

The debate over balloting has gone on for years. Both unions of which I have been president, and the union of which I am a member, have suggested to government that we should sit down and find a way out of this problem. We have not had any encouragement at all. At the time of the 2016 Act, David Cameron almost conceded that there would be a consultation, but it never happened. The fact is that it has become more and more time-consuming and costly for unions to stay within the law. I asked the Certification Officer’s office whether it had had any complaints about balloting procedures; it could not produce any. All it would say to me is that the Certification Officer’s job is to uphold the law, not to make it, and that he was satisfied that the law had been upheld.

Where are we going to go? I suggest that we could try to get a more realistic view of trade unions. There are about 5 million union members in this country, and 2 million of them vote for the Conservative Party. Noble Lords would be surprised at how seldom politics came up in the two unions of which I was president. The unions were about looking after the workers and their rights at work. A strike was not something looked forward to; a strike marked the fact that you had not managed to negotiate your way out of a problem. No one said, “Oh goody, let’s go and have a strike”. Most people said, “What else could we possibly do?”, and then it was done.

Mention has been made—I will repeat it—of the huge number of people who use balloting to elect people. I served as the finance chairman of my own club, the Reform Club, for some years. I was elected by a postal ballot, but people could also vote electronically. No one ever raised any questions about whether it was fair, because it manifestly was.

I say to this House: get real about trade unions. Two million of their members vote for the Conservative Party. They do not believe they are joining some insurrectionist left-wing party; most of them believe they are trying to improve their standards at work.

Finally, if you ask our union what the most popular services are, they will tell you: free legal advice and motor car insurance policies being reduced. That is the reason why lots of people join the unions. Long may they last. I say to the Conservative Party: please do settle down and come into the real world.