Apsana Begum MP: “I fully support the rights of workers to defend their pay and conditions, and this includes the right to strike.” 

Responding to the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill having its Second Reading in Parliament, Apsana Begum, MP for Poplar and Limehouse, said:

“I fully support the rights of workers to defend their pay and conditions, and this includes the right to strike.

“A successful and fair economy cannot be created without the full involvement of its workforce and there can be no true democracy without trade unionism.

“Over the last few years, this Government have introduced law after law attacking our rights and freedoms.

“This pattern of authoritarianism is chilling and evocative of repressive policies in countries the UK regularly criticises. Nothing demonstrates this more than the anti-worker legislation before Parliament today.

“Instead of taking action to address the cost-of-living crisis, inequality, and injustice, the Tories continue to punish and scapegoat workers for simply trying to survive.

“But the truth is that it is the Tories who have run the economy in to the ground and continue to put all our futures at risk by prioritising the destruction and exploitation of big business and the super-rich.

“It is their shambolic and reckless handling of the pandemic that oversaw thousands and thousands of workers dying across all sections of the workforce.

“I will always stand shoulder to shoulder with the trade union movement to resist these attacks on our communities, and our way of life.