Labour backbencher John McDonnell has promised to continue campaigning to amend the law on industrial action after his Private Member’s Bill was talked out of Parliament last week.
Mr McDonnell’s bill needed the support of 100 MPs to force a vote, but only 87 turned up to vote in favour of it.
Only 84 were Labour, despite lobbying from Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation chair Tony Woodley. At least two Conservative MPs spoke for more than an hour, and the bill ran out of time.
Mr McDonnell said: “We have seen a revisiting of past practices of filibustering to deny the will of the House. I believe it is a shame and a disgrace”. A spokesperson said he would seek Labour Party support for the bill’s aims.
The bill would have amended a law so that courts could not block industrial action as long as the errors were minor and “on a scale unlikely to affect the result of the ballot”.
