Union leaders have responded with anger to Liz Truss’s comments that British workers needed “more graft” and lacked the “skill and application” of foreign rivals.
Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), criticised the Tory leadership frontrunner for “lecturing” people to work harder while many were struggling to make ends meet.
Research carried out by the TUC in 2019 found that UK workers put in the longest hours in the EU – with the average full-time worker in Britain clocking in nearly two hours more than the EU average, the equivalent to an extra two-and-a-half weeks a year.
In a recording leaked to the Guardian, Truss had also risked pitting Londoners against the rest of the country by attempting to explain the difference between the capital and other regions in the UK.
Truss, who at the time of the comments was number two at the Treasury, suggested the disparity was “partly a mindset or attitude thing” and that there seemed little desire to change the working culture so that the UK could become more prosperous.
However, O’Grady told the Guardian: “British workers put in the longest working hours in Europe. Yet millions are still struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table. Working people need a decent pay rise – not lectures on how to work harder.
“Rather than insulting workers, her government should be putting in some ‘hard graft’ to protect families from soaring bills and falling real wages.”
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said: “Liz Truss has exposed her real views on workers in Britain. They’re quite frankly abhorrent. It shows how disconnected from the real lives of working people she is.
“Families are often working two and three jobs, visiting food banks and working under the most restrictive labour laws in Europe. Our political class once again shows they are a million miles away from reality.”
Gary Smith, leader of the GMB union, said: “Liz Truss thinking UK workers need ‘more graft’ shows just how out of touch she is. It’s worrying, but not surprising, that the person who is likely to be prime minster has so little respect for the people who are the backbone of our country.
“Instead of spouting this ill-informed nonsense and undermining those who actually do the hard work across the country, she should have some pride in the people she may soon lead.”
London had the highest productivity level of any UK region in 2020, with output per hour more than 50% higher than the median, according to the Office for National Statistics.
However, this is widely believed to be the result of large multinationals being based in the capital, higher engagement with research and development, the size of firms, the level of exports and the transport infrastructure.
Truss’s remarks about the productivity of workers outside London could be particularly damaging as earlier this month she was forced to make a U-turn on plans to cut civil service pay outside the capital after a furious outcry from Conservative MPs.
Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, tweeted: “Suffice to say if the bookies’ favourite to be the next PM genuinely believed that mindset [and] attitude can explain the north south divide then she was very much mistaken.”
Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool city region, said: “It is worrying that a potential future prime minister thinks that productivity issues are simply a question of graft. There are longstanding issues with productivity in this country because of decades of underfunding and inequality between regions.
“Coming hot on the heels of her shelved announcement on paying northerners less than those down south, it is difficult to see how Liz Truss could possibly be a prime minister for the whole country. This time she is not only telling the north that we aren’t good enough, but everyone in Britain.”
Many Britons also put in extra hours but don’t get rewarded, with TUC analysis showing that employers claimed £27bn of free labour last year because of workers doing unpaid overtime.
However, the Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse supported Truss’s remarks, telling Nick Ferrari on LBC that workers needed to be encouraged to work harder. He said: “I think there are lots of people in the British economy work[ing] extremely hard. But I have to tell you, every single school report I ever had, Nick, said, ‘could try harder’. So I don’t think there’s anything wrong with encouraging people to work as hard as they possibly can.”
Earlier, the former health secretary Sajid Javid distanced himself from Truss’s comments, saying he did not know the context in which they had been made, but he thought British workers were the most hardworking in the world.
Javid, who has backed Truss to be the next prime minister, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Well, I know what you’re referring to, but I don’t know the context in that comment when it was made.”
He added: “What I do recognise and I’ve long recognised as business secretary, as chancellor, in all the jobs I’ve had in government, is that governments need to do even more to improve our productivity.
“Now, when it comes to British workers, they’re the most hardworking in the world.”
