RIGHTWINGERS’ support for the erosion of workers’ rights is “causing people to turn to demagogues” across the world, Labour’s shadow business secretary has told the Morning Star.

In an exclusive interview in central London yesterday, Clive Lewis warned that the same conditions which assisted Donald Trump in his rise to power could also propel French far-right leader Marine Le Pen to her country’s presidency.

And he hit back at Tory Work and Pensions Secretary Damian Green, who said the development of the “gig economy” of self-employment without sick pay or holidays was “exciting.”

“It shows the Tories have absolutely no idea whatsoever — not just on Brexit, not just on what has taken this country out of Europe, but also on what has happened in the US where someone who is now surrounding himself with fascists has come to power,” he said.

“What this shows is that they have no idea about the social instabilities that their economic system of the last 35 or 40 years has created.

“The fact is that it’s the insecurity that people face, the low pay, the lack of rights at work — this is what is causing people to turn to demagogues, causing people to turn to extremism.”

Mr Green had said the rise of companies such as Uber and Deliveroo “has changed” the guarantee of rights at work.

“They can pick and mix their employers, their hours, their offices, their holiday patterns,” he reportedly said of workers.

“The potential is huge and the change is exciting.”

Uber is currently appealing against an employment tribunal ruling that its drivers are not their own bosses — which would require it to pay the minimum wage and offer statutory rights.

Mr Lewis said: “The Uber court case shows quite clearly that we need to embrace technology, but if those technological models are going to mean that people have to live and work on poverty pay, then I’m afraid to say those business models need re-evaluating and re-initiating.”

“Labour’s offer is basically that we can have a civil society which embraces the cutting edge of 21st century technology, but it doesn’t have to mean that we have to go back to a Victorian era in terms of people’s rights at work and people’s ability to look after themselves and indeed their families.”

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