Labour says it will stick with workers’ rights plans despite Mandelson remarks

Labour has said it will keep its ban on zero-hours jobs and improvements to workers’ rights after the party peer Peter Mandelson warned against “rushing” through changes championed by trade unions.

Anneliese Dodds, the Labour chair, said the party was committed to the package to “make work pay” and get more money into people’s pockets, but that it would “continue to discuss” the plans with business and unions.

Keir Starmer’s new deal for working people would give employees more rights such as protections against unfair dismissal, sick pay and parental leave from day one but many business groups are lobbying to water it down.

The Guardian previously reported that Mandelson gave a combative speech to a City of London Corporation dinner at party conference, where he warned against making labour market reforms that could swing too far towards the “other extreme”.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said in her Mais lecture this week that the party would “work with business as we deliver and implement these policies”, raising the prospect of further refinement of the package.

Rupert Soames, the new president of the CBI, told the FT last month that the UK needed to avoid a “European model” of employment rights and resist excessive regulation that undermined productivity in order to rediscover its competitiveness.