UNIONS warned ministers against putting vested interests above working people after a major TUC poll revealed yesterday that not a single constituency in the country opposed the Employment Rights Bill’s key policies.

The TUC urged the government to ignore criticism of its flagship policy after the biggest ever poll on workers’ rights exposes how Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage are a “world away” from British voters.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Make no mistake: the government’s landmark Employment Rights Bill is a vote winner. 

“Opponents of the Bill are a world away from views of the British public.

“These policies are massively popular right across the country — and the political spectrum.  

“After the failed Conservative era of a low-rights, low-pay and a low-growth economy, voters can see the importance of making work pay and ending the scourge of insecure work. 

“That’s why the government must ignore the noise and deliver the Employment Rights Bill in full.  

“Those who defend the broken status quo are putting their own vested interests above working people.

“Reform is defying its own voters and constituents on workers’ rights. Reform MPs voted against the Employment Rights Bill at every stage.  

“Nigel Farage and Reform aren’t on the side of working people — they’re on the side of bad bosses, zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire.” 

The “mega poll” of more than 21,000 people, commissioned by the TUC and Hope Not Hate, comes after YouGov polling last week showed Labour coming a clear second to Reform UK in voting intention.

The new research revealed that around two in three Reform and Tory voters support the Bill’s key policies of a ban on zero-hours contracts and giving all workers the right to statutory sick pay, and ensuring it is paid from the first day.

Other measures, including giving all workers protection from unfair dismissal from day one and improved flexible working laws, had similar support.

Hope Not Hate CEO Nick Lowles said: “Reform UK is emerging as a major political force in Britain and a serious threat to the Labour government’s majority. 

“Reform voters aren’t a homogenous bloc — a sizeable number of these voters are actually supportive of multiculturalism and immigration.

“But one thing most Reform voters have in common is their support for stronger rights at work, from banning zero-hours contracts to making it easier for workers to work flexibly.  

“Measures like these are an antidote to the sense of pessimism tempting voters to Reform UK.” 

Richard Burgon, secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, said: “Workers have been kicked around for too long, with low pay and insecure work becoming a real scourge in our society.

“So it’s no surprise that right across the board voters back better employment rights. 

“People have suffered for lack of them for too long and exploitative bosses have run amok.

“Of course Thatcher idolising Reform and Tory MPs have enthusiastically voted against improving workers’ rights and trade union rights — like their allies on the right around the globe, they are not on the side of workers.

“All Reform and the Tories offer is the dead-end of scapegoating minorities and shoring up the super-rich.

“The government’s Employment Rights Bill is a welcome advance, but the job of the labour and trade union movement is to take this opportunity to now push for it to be improved further by the time it becomes law.”

A spokeswoman for Momentum added: “Polls show overwhelming support for an end to low-paid, insecure work.

“Opponents of the Employment Rights Bill are simply out of touch with the British public.

“The Labour goverment must put workers’ rights at the forefront by implementing the New Deal for Working People in full.”