Employment Rights Bill

Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Anneliese Midgley

Consideration of Lords message
Wednesday 5th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

For the final Back-Bench contribution, I call Anneliese Midgley.

[Anneliese Midgley (Knowsley) (Lab)]

I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests regarding my membership of and financial support from the trade union movement.

I stand here as a proud trade unionist, with a couple of decades of work behind me standing up for the working class. I pay the truest of tributes to my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) and my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders).

[Ian Lavery (Blyth and Ashington) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about some hon. and right hon. Friends and the work that lots of people have done to bring this transformational Bill to the Commons. We also need to mention my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald) for his tremendous work at the very beginning of this process. It is transformational and everybody deserves lots of credit.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Success has many mothers.

[Anneliese Midgley]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention and I absolutely agree with him about the work that my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East has done on this for over a decade.

This Bill brings changes that tip the scale in favour of working people and, taken together with the rest of the new deal for working people, it amounts to the greatest uplift in workers’ rights in our generation. That is down to the friends that I have just mentioned here today. It is their legacy and it is one that will change the lives of millions of working-class people for the better. I know that the Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade, my hon. Friend the Member for Halifax (Kate Dearden), will do a great job of completing the process.

This is personal for me, because it was my dad’s secure, well-paid, unionised job on the production line in Ford’s Halewood plant that gave me a better life than my mum and dad had. It lifted us out of poverty and provided us with enough money and stability for a decent home, and enough to live a life of dignity on. Everyone should have that, and that is why I will fight for work where people can flourish and thrive and for jobs to take pride in that can provide a good life. No way would I be here in this place, representing the place where I was born and raised, if it was not for my dad’s job.

The Tories, backed by the Lib Dems in the other place, are trying to water down the Bill. They are aided and abetted by Reform, who are never in this place to debate this and have consistently voted against the Bill. Some of the Lords amendments would rip out the heart of the Bill. I am going to speak briefly to amendments 23 and 106 to 120, which would delay protections from unfair dismissal until a worker had been in their job for six months. This would mean that a worker could be dismissed at whim, for no reason. How is this okay? How is it defensible? A day one right not to be unfairly dismissed is good for workers and good for businesses.

My hon. Friend the Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery) spoke about the research from the IPPR and the TUC, which found that 73% of employers supported giving employees protection from unfair dismissal from day one of employment. The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Andrew Griffith), dismissed the TUC’s research from the Dispatch Box, but it represents 5 million workers and everyone else at work. Are they not stakeholders who should be listened to as well? We know that good employers up and down the country already live up to the standards that we are setting out in this Bill. Today, we need to stop these attempts to water down the Employment Rights Bill, deliver the protections from unfair dismissal that our constituents voted for and make sure we deliver the new deal for working people in full.

Letter Boxes (Positioning)

Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Anneliese Midgley

1st reading
Wednesday 11th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Midgley (Knowsley) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend building regulations to require letter boxes in new buildings and new front doors to be positioned in accordance with British Standard EN 13724:2013.

The Government say that they want to raise standards and focus on delivery, so I have got a perfect Bill for them—the Letter Boxes (Positioning) Bill. Last Christmas I visited the Royal Mail delivery office in Huyton in my constituency. I watched our posties working flat out, and it really hit home how hard they work, whatever the weather and whatever the conditions. I asked what I could do to help. They said, “Sort out those low-level letter boxes.” They are worried that one of these days, one of them could get a life-changing injury just from doing their job. For example, Lancaster postie Anthony Quinn lost the top of his finger after a dog lunged through a letter box and bit him. He was just doing his job, delivering the post. South London postie Andrew Berge was attacked through a letter box by a dog that locked on to his hand and would not let go. He suffered serious damage to his ring finger, and he was just doing his job, delivering the post. And Wakefield postie Elaine White lost the top of her finger in a similar attack. The damage was so bad that doctors could not reattach it. That is permanent, life altering, but she was just doing her job, delivering the post.

During my visit to the delivery office, posties showed me scars and injuries from dog attacks through letter boxes. Members across the House will have heard countless stories and first-hand experiences from our campaigners about getting dog bites while delivering leaflets to low-level letter boxes. Around 1,000 of our posties have had their fingers partly or fully bitten off through a letter box in the past five years. It is clear to me that letter boxes have reached a new low, and it is time we in this House raised them.

When a letterbox is down by someone’s ankles, any dog can bite, draw blood, or sever a finger or two. And it is not just about dog attacks; low-level letter boxes force our posties to stoop repeatedly, day in, day out. We have all been there on our leaflet delivery, and as we walk down the path and see a low-level letter box, the heart sinks—indeed, the only thing lower than the letter box is the mood of anyone who has to use one. Our posties have to do that every single day, dozens of times, and many of them get serious back problems and suffer back pain for years as a result of their job. Royal Mail recorded more than 18,000 back-related injuries in just one year.

Some of those posties are with us in the Gallery today—I thank them for joining us, and for all that they do. Their union, the Communication Workers Union, has campaigned for this change since 1958. Why has it not happened yet? A recent survey of CWU reps found that 93% reported issues with low-level letter boxes in new buildings, and 99% said that following the standard proposed in this Bill—letter boxes being 70 cm from the ground—would make a real difference.

This is not just about protecting workers, though that is reason enough; it is also about the cost of inaction. In 2022, back pain alone led to 154,000 lost working days at Royal Mail, costing it £16 million, and dog attacks lead to NHS treatment, police investigations and court cases.

I thank the Members who have co-sponsored the Bill. It is a change that is supported by posties up and down the country and by Royal Mail. I also believe it is supported across this House, because in the last Parliament the former Conservative Member for Chelmsford, Vicky Ford, brought forward a similar Bill, which had widespread support, and I pay tribute to her and to the work she did on the issue. I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Corby and East Northamptonshire (Lee Barron), who is sitting next to me. He is a former postie and CWU regional secretary. I know that this issue can unite us all, because when I asked a question on it some months ago in this Chamber, there was cries of “Hear, hear” from across the House. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] That is rare.

This should be a simple fix. The current British standard is that letter box height should be at least 70 cm off the ground. Right now, that is advisory; this Bill would make it mandatory. This is not about asking people to change their existing doors or letter boxes. This Bill is just about low-level letter boxes in new buildings, both residential and commercial.

This Labour Government will build 1.5 million new homes during this Parliament, and I welcome the Chancellor’s announcement today at the spending review of £39 billion to help build new social and affordable housing. However, let us ensure that those homes are built right so that posties do not go to work in fear of injury, and let us build them without burdening our public services with the costs of those injuries. As a Labour Government, we take our duty to look after working people seriously. The Bill will do just that.

Loads of other countries, such as Ireland, Portugal and Belgium, have already banned low-level letter boxes. Why are we behind them? Let us catch up with our neighbours on this. Let us raise the bar—or height, literally—on letter boxes. It will save pain, prevent injury and cut costs. It is the right thing to do for the people who deliver our post, are part of our community and look after us day in, day out—and we will never forget the role they played during the covid pandemic.

Our consideration for our posties’ health and safety at work should be first class. I therefore ask the House to give the Bill its stamp of approval and get it signed, sealed and delivered.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

As a frequent leafleteer in Sussex Weald, I am particularly invested in this piece of legislation.

Question put and agreed to.

Ordered,

That Anneliese Midgley, Lee Barron, Charlie Dewhirst, Colum Eastwood, Emma Foody, Louise Haigh, Sally Jameson, Joe Morris, Sarah Owen, Laurence Turner, Chris Webb and Michael Wheeler present the Bill.

Anneliese Midgley accordingly presented the Bill.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 11 July, and to be printed (Bill 259).