As we look forward to the next stage of the lifting of lockdown, we are all desperate to get back to normal in our lives, seeing our friends and family.
But do we want the way the country and economy works to go back to the way it was before, back to normal? Labour says no. Our country deserves better, far better.
Because back to normal means millions of workers in deeply insecure jobs, often with few rights at work, including whether they could be safe in this crisis.
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Normal means the key workers in our country, in social care, for example, paid the least and often with the least security.
It means public services under deep strain. It means an economy with deep unfairness in income, wealth, power and place.
When things were ‘normal’, two million people across our country were living in destitution, lacking the most basic things in life.
As if this wasn’t enough, our businesses and our economy now face the challenge of recovering from Covid, and we are in the decisive decade of a climate emergency that requires huge changes to how we use our land, travel, and heat our homes.
In the face of these challenges, we owe it to the British people not simply to try and go back to the way things were but to build something new.
The Conservatives are paying lip service to this idea. But trust actions, not words. The rhetoric of change masks the reality of more of the same.
Let’s start with the insecurity that millions of workers face. Two years ago, in another Queen’s Speech, we were promised an Employment Bill. Ministers promised it would protect and enhance workers’ rights, including prioritising fairness in the workplace, and protecting those in low-paid work.
But the bill is still nowhere to be seen in this year’s Queen’s Speech, despite being promised time and time again. That glaring omission has left workers badly exposed and unprotected during the pandemic.
We have seen the…