The government has been accused of a “complete betrayal” by its own backbenchers after ministers abandoned plans to give workers day-one protection against unfair dismissal in a U-turn that breaches the Labour manifesto.
Ministers have axed the proposal to cut the “qualifying period” for workers to make an unfair dismissal claim from 24 months to the first day in a new job, in a bid to get the legislation through Parliament.
Following the climbdown, the government now intends to introduce the right after six months of service instead, while other day-one rights to paternity leave and sick pay are still set to go ahead, coming into effect in April 2026.
Leading rebel Labour MP Rachael Maskell said she is “deeply disappointed” by the U-turn, an intervention which could signal trouble for the government.
Ms Maskell was one of 47 Labour MPs who rebelled against proposed welfare curbs in July, forcing Downing St to back down.
The bill had been caught in a stand-off between peers and MPs over the original plan to give workers the protection on day one, as well as measures to ban “exploitative” zero-hours contracts.
Labour’s manifesto explicitly promised to “consult fully with businesses, workers, and civil society on how to put our plans into practice before legislation is passed”.
“This will include banning exploitative zero-hours contracts; ending fire and rehire; and introducing basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal,” it said.
The latest U-turn came just hours after Sir Keir Starmer scrambled to refute allegations that Labour had misled the public. He pledged not to raise taxes on working people before overseeing a record £26bn tax hike during the autumn budget on Wednesday.
The concession on workers’ rights, which comes after some businesses voiced concerns about potential costs and recruitment challenges, sparked an immediate backlash among some backbenchers and the Unite union.
Labour MP Justin Madders, a former government minister and an ally of Angela Rayner - who pioneered the legislation - accused the government of breaching its manifesto.
“It might be a compromise. It might even be necessary to get the bill passed [as soon as possible]. But it most definitely is a manifesto breach”, he said.
It came after business secretary Peter Kyle denied the concession was a breach of Labour’s manifesto, as well as claiming the compromise had been found by “unions and the employers” and “it’s not my job to stand in the way of that compromise”.
“They’ve gone through the difficult process of working together to find a compromise… it’s my job to accept it,” he said.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson also denied that the concession on Labour's flagship employment rights bill was a broken manifesto promise, because Labour’s election document had committed to a consultation.
“In the manifesto, what we said was that we would work with trade unions, with business, with civil society, in consulting on those protections that we’d be bringing forward.
“So, there are both parts to that, within the manifesto, the important rights and the consultation”, she said.
But Ms Maskell said: “I stood on a manifesto where we said we would put day one rights in place and that did include unfair dismissal, so of course I am deeply disappointed to hear these changes have been made.
“Above all this is is coming from the House of Lords, the unelected chamber.”
Meanwhile, Labour MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, Andy McDonald, branded the move a “complete betrayal” and vowed to push for its reversal.
He said: “We cannot support that halfway measure”, adding: “This is a wrong-headed move and I will campaign to have this concession reversed.”
Labour MP for Poole, Neil Duncan-Jordan, claimed there had been “no discussion” with the parliamentary Labour Party about the move.
“The Lords don’t have primacy over a manifesto commitment, so why have we capitulated?”, he told the PA news agency.
Another Labour MP said the climbdown showed that Sir Keir and Ms Reeves were “weak” and had caved to external pressure, adding: “The shtick is this is a workers’ Budget for working people, and then one of your flagship programmes, you knock off a key part of it. It’s a manifesto breach.”
Unite boss Sharon Graham said the bill had become “a shell of its former self” while TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said the “absolute priority” was to get the legislation on to the statute books.
“Following the government’s announcement, it is now vital that peers respect Labour’s manifesto mandate and that this bill secures royal assent as quickly as possible,” Mr Nowak said.
Ms Graham said: “These constant row-backs will only damage workers’ confidence that the protections promised will be worth the wait. Labour needs to keep its promises.”
Clapham and Brixton Hill’s Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy told the BBC: “Rolling back now is a huge problem because if we’re rolling back now, what other tweaks are we going to accept? What else are we going to get pushed into? We’re literally the Labour Party.”
While former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said in a post on X: “Is this a sellout? Yes it certainly is. If it’s unfair to sack someone, it’s unfair whenever it occurs whether it’s day one or after six months. The principle is fairness.”
However, business groups welcomed Thursday’s concession, saying the qualifying period of six months was “crucial for businesses’ confidence to hire and to support employment, at the same time as protecting workers”.
But they warned that firms would “still have concerns” about many of the powers within the bill, including thresholds for industrial action, guaranteed hours contracts and seasonal and temporary workers.
“We remain committed to working with government and unions to dealing with this in the necessary secondary legislation to implement the bill,” the six industry groups involved in discussions with trade unions said.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch described the move as “another humiliating U-turn” for Labour and said the legislation still contains “measures that will damage businesses and be terrible for economic growth”.
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