Tory MP takes chainsaw to workers’ rights package in new video
The shadow secretary of state for business has channelled Argentina’s red-tape-slashing President, Javier Milei, in a new video in which he vows to “take a chainsaw” to the government’s 300-page workers’ rights overhaul.
Tory MP Andrew Griffith filmed himself cutting through the tome of new legislation that the Employment Rights Bill will foist on employers, vowing to “repeal all of the job-destroying measures” in the bill.
“Politicians love to talk about how they’re going to cut red tape, but when in government they never do,” he is filmed saying in the video posted on X.
“Faced with Labour’s 300-page job-killing, trade union-inspired Employment Rights Bill, the next Conservative government will repeal all of the job-destroying measures in the bill. We’ll effectively take a chainsaw to Labour’s job-killing bill.”
The video then shows the shadow minister cutting through the Bill with a small chainsaw.
Griffith has already confirmed the Tories would overturn the overhaul of workers’ rights that Labour first promised in the run-up to the general election, in one of the few concrete policies announced by the party since last year’s historic general election defeat.
In a speech delivered in June, the Conservatives’ business spokesperson said the bill would hand “enormous power” to trade unions, which would “grind the economy to a halt”.
“The work to once again make the Conservative Party the party of business begins today,” he told business leaders. “There is no way back to government without this. It won’t be easy, and it will not be done with sugar rush or press release politics”
Griffith’s video follows warnings from several bosses and industry bodies that the workers’ rights overhaul poses significant challenges to firms’ ability to take on new staff.
The bill, which is currently being scrutinised by Parliament, contains several measures that bolster staff’s recourse to sue over unfair dismissal. That and other controversial changes to statutory sick pay have united all five of the UK’s largest business groups in opposition to the overhaul.
But – spearheaded by deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner – the government has claimed the package will deliver “the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation”.