One of the simply inaccurate charges laid against this Labour government is that it is no longer the Party of working people. I roundly refute that accusation, as you may expect. But my rejection of it is backed up by a raft of polices directly focussed on working people that are so often drowned out by a hostile right-wing media.

Banning no-fault evictions, so renters can’t be thrown out for no reason; bringing railways into public ownership; free breakfast clubs, childcare, and extra nursery places; 500,000 more free school meals; hiking stamp duty on second homes, opposed by Reform UK; ending tax breaks for private schools and adding VAT to fees to invest directly into state schools; increasing minimum wage by 6.7 per cent; five-million more NHS appointments a week than the Tories; and the reintroduction of family hubs to help with breastfeeding, housing, and early child development. These are all policies directly aimed at working people.

They were also manifesto commitments that were endorsed so comprehensively in the General Election 14 months ago. We are delivering on them all.

And now we have another manifesto commitment which I was proud to help vote through in the House of Commons last week: the Employment Rights Bill.

This is one of the most far-reaching changes to UK working practices for a generation and will have a direct positive impact on the lives of millions of people.

Some of the key features of the Bill include: providing ‘Day 1 rights’ of employment, including protection from Unfair Dismissal, entitlement to Paternity Leave, Unpaid Parental Leave; establishing Bereavement Leave and making Flexible Working the default; banning those exploitative zero-hours; abolishing the scourge of fire and rehire; extending employment tribunal time limits, giving more time for disputes to be resolved and bringing it in line with limits on equal pay and statutory redundancy claims; establishing the Fair Work Agency to make sure everyone is playing by the same rules; improving pay and conditions through Fair Pay Agreements, and re-establishing the School Support Staff Negotiating Body; increasing protection from sexual harassment, introducing Equality Menopause Action Plans and strengthening rights for pregnant workers; and making improvements to and strengthening Statutory Sick Pay.

Now there are those that will no doubt argue that these increase the burden on employers. My view is that many of these changes bring UK working practices in line with those of our European neighbours.

If we are able to develop employment rights that more closely match the modern lives of workers, then workers will respond more positively, retention rates will increase and, with it, productivity. We have seen how, over decades, employment rights have fallen well behind other countries.

This is part of the reason that UK productivity has fallen so dramatically in the last 20 years. It’s also fair to say that some of our employers have already embedded some of these changes. But it’s time for all workers to benefit from them. This Labour government has always been and will always be on the side of working people.