'The Tories have become too dependent on handing away our public services on the cheap'
The Deputy leader of the Labour Party, Angela Rayner, told the Labour conference this morning that the party would oversee the ‘biggest wave of insourcing in a generation’, as she set out the party’s offer to the country.
Rayner vowed to end the Tories’ procurement racket run at the expense of British taxpayers and create jobs and boost growth under a new ‘national procurement plan’.
She said: “Conference, the Tories have become too dependent on handing away our public services on the cheap, and now we are paying the price.
“We will oversee the biggest wave of insourcing for a generation.
“Today I can announce that before any service is contracted out, public bodies must show that work could not be better done in-house.
“And we’ll reinstate and strengthen the two-tier code, created by the last Labour government and scrapped by the Tories, to end the scandal of outsourced workers getting second class pay and conditions.”
The TUC have welcomed the plans, with TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady saying: “These proposals are much needed. Outsourcing has been a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money and led to a race to the bottom on workers’ pay and conditions.”
Rayner also said that the Labour Party would establish a fair work standard setting benchmark for employment conditions.
She said: “Building on our new deal for working people, I can today unveil Labour’s fair work standard.
“Inspired by Labour in power across the country – in Wales, in London, West Yorkshire, the North of Tyne, Greater Manchester and here in Liverpool, it will underpin a new fair work code for the public sector, guaranteeing fair conditions, job security, wellbeing, proper training, rights at work, and union access.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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