Renewed call for election

Unions renewed their calls for a general election following the resignation last month of then prime minister Liz Truss. 


Christina McAnea, general secretary of the UNISON public services union, said: “The crisis affecting the country is so deep that the only solution is to have an election. There should be one immediately so voters can choose a government to get the country back on its feet.”


Usdaw retail union general secretary Paddy Lillis said the “chaotic” Tories had “crashed the economy, caused interest rates to rocket and risked pensions funds, all because they tried and failed to cut taxes for the wealthiest”. 


Welcoming Labour leader Keir Starmer’s speech to last month’s TUC Congress, he said a Labour government would put Britain back on track. Labour’s new deal for working people would end low-paid insecure employment and give workers a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, he said. 


At its annual conference in September, Labour also pledged to set up fully funded breakfast clubs for every primary school in England; expand the windfall tax on oil and gas giants and create a new publicly owned energy champion; and bring the railways back into public ownership.


But Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham said Labour must be bolder and on the side of workers. “Stop apologising and stick up for workers,” she said. “Because there is already a very loud voice for the rich and the business lobby, its called the Tory Party’.”