I want to speak about the proposed changes to employment legislation, an area in which I have many years of experience and in which I get increasingly frustrated by comments made
by Government Members who either do not understand the limitations of current employment legislation or deliberately want to take us back to the days when mill and pit owners could treat their employees like slaves, work them till they dropped, and pay no regard to their health and well-being.
The UK does not have wonderful employment rights; of the 36 richest countries, we come 34th. Only Canada and America are worse. That should not say to anyone that employment rights are holding back our growth. Indeed, we know only too well that when international companies want to close factories in Europe, they close a factory in Britain before they close one in France or Germany because of the cheapness and simplicity of making workers here redundant.