Kwasi Kwarteng's strike-busting was unlawful

Kwasi Kwarteng's cynical plot to undermine striking workers through the use of agency staff has been foiled after it was declared "unlawful" and "irrational" by the High Court

In June 2022 the then business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng decided to use a piece of legislation called a Statutory Instrument to delete a piece of legislation (regulation 7) that prevented employers from undermining industrial action by hiring agency workers to do the jobs of striking workers.

The very first sentence of the legislation Kwarteng put forward was a barefaced lie that he had "consulted" concerned parties (namely trade unions, employers, and employment agencies …).

Because it was introduced as a Statutory Instrument there was no legislative scrutiny or parliamentary vote, meaning the protection against strike-breaking bosses was just quietly deleted on his say so.

During the subsequent year-long legal battle it was found that Kwarteng did indeed lie that he’d consulted relevant bodies, but he tried to fall back on the claim that the Tory government had carried out a consultation in 2015.

What he neglected to mention in his defence was that the 2015 consultation received largely negative responses, and that the Regulatory Policy Committee found that the proposal shouldn’t go ahead because the impact assessment conducted at the time was "not fit for purpose".

The High Court found that found that it was "indicative of Kwarteng’s lack of interest in evidence or views about the proposal to revoke regulation 7 that the decision was to proceed at exceptional speed … This was despite the lack of an impact assessment at the time of the decision, and despite the evidence available to Kwarteng being that the measure would have negligible beneficial impact in the short term and, quite possibly, an adverse impact on the government’s ability to settle ongoing industrial disputes".

The judge, Justice Lieven, also noted that on top of the fact the original proposal was flawed, a lot had changed since then too, including Brexit, new Tory anti-trade union legislation in 2016, and the coronavirus pandemic.

In light of all of this, the judge ruled that Kwarteng’s behaviour had been "unlawful" and "irrational", and that the legislation should be quashed.

It’s telling that after his promotion to Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwarteng went on to demonstrate the exact same contempt for expert advice and impact assessments when he ignored all the warnings to plough ahead with his disastrous Kamikaze mini-budget that caused so much economic chaos that Liz Truss was forced to resign as Prime Minister after just seven weeks.

The Tory government decided not to appeal against the High Court ruling, which constitutes an admission that they acted unlawfully, and means that Kwarteng’s "unlawful" and "irrational" strike-busting is quashed as of August 10th 2023.

Despite his "unlawful" and "irrational" behaviour as business secretary, and his damaging economic recklessness as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng is still sitting comfortably as a Tory MP.