Jack Dromey MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Labour, commenting on press reports that senior cabinet members have rebelled against plans to put workers on company boards, said:

“The Tories claim to represent working people but have presided over a summer of bad boss scandals, from the atrocious treatment of employees at Sports Direct, to the loss of pensions and jobs through mismanagement at BHS and Bernard Matthews.

“The Prime Minister has placed worker representation on boards at the centre of her plans to rein in unscrupulous business practices. The revelation that not even her own cabinet agrees with her means that these are likely to be yet more warm but empty words from the Prime Minister.

“Action is desperately needed to ensure that companies are managed in the interests of long-run growth, not the short-term gain for a few. But only a Labour Government will be prepared to take the action that is needed.  We need to start in our workplaces by restoring job security and fairness to working life, and crucially by making sure that jobs and employment rights come first in Brexit negotiations.

“The Tories’ laughable claim to be the “party of the workers” is undermined by their actions which show they stand up only for the few.”