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The Green Party will seek to outflank Labour from the left on employment rights on Friday with a promise to lift the minimum wage to £15 and end Margaret Thatcher’s ban on “secondary picketing”. The Greens’ “Workers Charter 2026” is an attempt to persuade workers that the party, now in joint second place in opinion polls, would go even further in improving workers’ rights than Sir Keir Starmer’s government. It is also an attempt to court trade unions that might disaffiliate from Labour in order to be free to donate to multiple leftwing parties. Unite, one of the largest unions, last month voted to cut its Labour affiliation payments by £580,000 in protest against the ruling party. Green leader Zack Polanski will on Friday say that Starmer’s Employment Rights Act — which includes more generous sick pay, greater parental leave and a ban on “exploitative” zero-hours contracts — does not go far enough and has been watered down following pressure from business. Party officials said Polanski would promise a rise in the minimum wage to £15 by April 2027 “for all workers regardless of age”, requiring an 18 per cent increase from its current adult level of £12.71. The policy would mark a 38 per cent rise for 18 to 20-year-olds, now on £10.85. Polanski, who became leader last summer, would also vow to “scrap all anti-union and anti-strike laws introduced since 1979” and cap executive pay at 10 times the rate of the lowest-paid worker in a company, they added. The move on industrial action would include ending Thatcher’s ban on secondary picketing, under which striking workers can take action on the premises of their employer’s suppliers as a way to put pressure on the company. “The reforms introduced by Margaret Thatcher nearly half a century ago began the long march downwards in the balance of power and wealth in our country,” Polanski will say in a speech in Greater Manchester. “The Greens are the new workers’ party, and we will address the massive imbalance in our workplace.” The party’s charter is likely to be welcomed by trade unions and workers but will raise alarm bells among some business groups, which are already uneasy about Labour’s own changes to employment law. The Conservatives and Reform UK have said they would reverse the reforms.
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