UBER could be in trouble.

In October an employment tribunal ruled two of its drivers were not “self-employed.” The company’s financial model rests on pretending it is a “technology company,” not a firm employing tax drivers.

But the tribunal members said: “The notion that Uber in London is a mosaic of 30,000 small businesses linked by a common ‘platform’ is to our minds faintly ridiculous.”

If Uber are forced to treat all drivers as staff, they will have to pay them more and the tribunal ruling is one more step against the “gig economy” where staff for delivery and driving firms have been treated as selfemployed and so underpaid.

In another step, Theresa May hired former Blair adviser Matthew Taylor to review the gig economy. May said she wanted to build a “a new centre ground for British politics” and that Taylor’s review would make sure that the rules are “keeping pace with the changing world of work.”

It all sounds a bit vague but May is making caring noises, suggesting she might help the “just about managing” and rein in the exploitative bosses.

But Uber have a back door into 10 Downing Street. The Cabinet Office publish lists of who took ministers’ special advisers to dinner. The latest list, published on December 16, shows that Uber have already reached out to May’s people.

Last July Uber took Sheridan Westlake, appointed as a special adviser to May that same month, to lunch. A year before he was David Cameron’s special adviser. These lists are quite retrospective, so we can’t tell yet if Uber have been entertaining any more Number 10 folk since September.

But if all the underpaid people in the gig economy want a fair deal, they’d best club together their meagre earnings and take Sheridan for supper. Because that’s how politics works in Britain.

According to official figures, he already earns £72,000 a year, so it had better be a very smart meal.

Dame on the make? 

NINETY-THREE per cent of British children go to state schools but the very highest education award in the New Year’s honours list was a Damehood for Helen Fraser, outgoing Chief Exec of the Girls Day School Trust (GDST), a network of 26 private schools.

GDST is merely posh rather than full-on elite, with typical schools charging £5,000 a term for non-boarding pupils.

Maybe GDST parents are what May means when she talks about the Just About Managing. The trust makes £254 million a year in fees, with a £250,000 salary going to their highest-paid director — presumably Fraser.

This is apparently a “service to education” deserving a “Dame Commander” award. Fraser’s trust likes to boast about bursaries — and gets charitable status in return — but only one in five pupils get “assistance” with fees.

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