Yesterday, attending an event with business leaders, Keir Starmer was asked if Labour would repeal the anti-strike legislation the Conservative government intends to soon make law. To the consternation of Labour MPs, party members, and affiliated trade unions, and despite describing the proposals as “unworkable,” my party’s leader refused to commit to scrapping the laws if Labour wins the next election.

I am confident that I speak on behalf of the overwhelming majority of the Labour and trade union movement when I say that the Tory anti-strike laws are an affront to democracy and free society, and that any Labour Party worthy of its name must commit to abolishing them. Indeed, earlier this week, I listened to Keir Starmer speak with passion and eloquence about the vital role of trade unions and his commitment to unshackling them to win for working people — a sentiment with which I could not agree more. That’s why the lack of decisive commitment in yesterday’s response was so disappointing.

Workers in the UK already face some of the most restrictive trade union laws in the developed world. That so many are taking strike action — more this year than in any year since 1990 — demonstrates the desperate situation they face. It speaks to the severity of the cost-of-living crisis that working people across the economy have organized to overcome barriers and thresholds designed to prevent them organizing to demand the decent pay and conditions they deserve.