A TORY minister yesterday talked out a Bill which would ban unpaid trial shifts that exploit vulnerable jobseekers who “don’t know their rights and can’t stand up for them.”

SNP MP Stewart McDonald said current legislation was “insufficient” in dealing with unpaid trials.

He said that his Unpaid Trial Work Periods (Prohibition) Bill would help people with learning disabilities who he said were more likely to “fall victim” to the practice.

Fellow SNP MP Neil Gray said the “greatest tragedy” was that most often those “exploited” have learning disabilities and “are desperate for work and see these as their only opportunity and that is one of the key reasons why this Bill must pass.”

Labour’s shadow business minister Alan Whitehead also welcomed the Bill, saying it was about the principle of a “fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”

Mr McDonald said he would never again shop in bargain store B&M after being “horrified” to learn that a young man with autism had been “stacking shelves for three or four days” before being sent away with no pay.

But filibustering Business Minister Andrew Griffiths talked the Bill out, claiming that “there is a very clear way in which we can do this without the need for further regulation.”

Mr McDonald also claimed he had found an online advert from 2012 for an unpaid internship in the office of Mr Griffiths.

Mr Griffiths initially said he had “never, ever had an unpaid internship” in his office but later clarified that the position had been advertised but not filled.