LABOUR ISN'T WORKING
Radical Labour plan for Brits to work 32 hours in four day week could ‘wreck the economy’
A RADICAL Labour plan for Brits to work 32 hours in a four-day week could "wreck the economy", critics have warned.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has committed to delivering a “shorter working week with no loss of pay” if the party gets to No10.
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The hard-left Labour chief made the announcement today despite the party's own report finding the policy could lead to lower wages and fewer jobs.
One Tory MP fumed that the policy "beggars belief" adding: "Labour would wreck the economy and leave working people worse off."
Mr McDonnell also promised to eliminate in-work poverty in his first term, during the party’s conference in Brighton.
During his keynote speech the trusted Jeremy Corbyn ally said: "Labour has traditionally been committed to full employment.
"We have always believed that getting a job should mean you are lifted out of poverty."
'WORK TO LIVE, NOT LIVE TO WORK'
But under the Tories that link had been broken, he claimed.
Mr McDonnell added: "We should work to live, not live to work.
"People in our country work some of the longest hours in Europe.
"Since the 1980s the link between increasing productivity and expanding free time has been broken. It's time to put that right."
DAMNING REPORT
Labour originally revealed their plans earlier this month even though its research found a French law imposing a 35-hour week massively backfired.
Lord Skidelsky’s report, commissioned by Labour, found that bosses responded to the French law by freezing wages and recruiting less.
And it plunged hospitals into crisis, causing staff shortage and intensifying work to an “unpleasant degree”.
But the report called for the government to set a target to achieve a 35-hour working week in the public sector over the next target.
And it also called for every Brit to be guaranteed a job or training.
LABOUR PLAN WOULD 'WRECK THE ECONOMY'
Tory critics have slammed the announcement today.
Mark Harper MP, who represents the Forest of Dean in Gloucs, said: “It beggars belief McDonnell is pushing ahead with these plans despite his own report saying it would mean wage freezes, problems at hospitals and hit low-paid workers and small businesses hardest.
It beggars belief McDonnell is pushing ahead with these plans despite his own report saying it would mean wages freeze.
Mark Harper MP
“Only Boris Johnson and the Conservatives want to deliver Brexit, so we can focus on the things that matter - investing in our NHS, properly funding our schools and putting 20,000 new police officers on our streets.”
Mr McDonnell also used his keynote speech to confirm plans for Labour to fund free personal care for elderly people in England.
The pledge, which would cost an estimated £6billion a year in 2020/21, would more than double the number of people receiving state-funded support, Labour said.
Mr McDonnell also said the UK would share "green technology" with poorer countries to make up for Britain's "colonial past".
MOST READ IN POLITICS
He added: "We recognise that the first industrial revolution meant Britain was the first major contributor to climate change, something that left a lasting legacy for the Global South.
"And to begin making some reparations for our colonial past, I pledge we will provide the citizens of the Global South free or cheap access to the green technologies that we develop as part of our green industrial revolution."
John McDonnell’s raft of leftie policies would cost up to £60bn to enforce, before adding a 32-hour working week and stopping Universal Credit, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
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