Post Office Horizon Compensation Scheme

Lord Barber of Ainsdale Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Barber of Ainsdale (Lab) (Maiden Speech)]

I want to express my thanks to my noble friend Lord Beamish for initiating today’s debate and give my warm congratulations to my noble friend Lady Elliott on her excellent maiden speech.

I feel very privileged to join this House and acutely conscious of how much I have to learn of its conventions and procedures. I am fortunate to have the guidance and wisdom of my noble friends Lord Monks and Lady O’Grady, who both supported my introduction to the House. John has been a mentor and close friend of mine ever since I first walked through the doors of the TUC headquarters, Congress House, in 1975—quite a long time ago. Frances, who succeeded me in the position of TUC general secretary, has demonstrated ever since that her talent and integrity wholly justified my confidence that the TUC’s leadership would be in great hands on my departure. I am also delighted that another very close colleague, now my noble friend Lady Carberry, has also joined us in this House. She will give great service.

Ainsdale, now in my formal title, is an area in the town of Southport, which has suffered greatly in the wake of those terrible events some months ago. I applaud the spirit of the Southport people in their response to that outrage.

Throughout my childhood in Ainsdale, my dad worked as a bricklaying instructor in a local approved school. The term “approved school” was the language of the time; now I guess it would be called a young offender institution. We had a house in the grounds of the school; perhaps I am the first noble Lord to have been brought up in such an institution—or looking around all the Benches, perhaps not.

I sometimes saw my dad defuse a difficult situation, with angry young men about to kick off, by using patience, calmness and reason, and sometimes humour too. As I have discovered, both in the TUC and during my time as chair of ACAS, these can be important factors in the resolution of any difficult conflict.

I have tried to learn from all my experiences as I have made my way through life. After leaving school, I served for a year as a volunteer teacher in Ghana through the VSO—Voluntary Service Overseas—programme. This began to open my eyes to the vast diversity of life experience across the planet we share. At the end of my degree course at City University, I spent a year as president of the student union, able to observe and play a part in the university’s most senior governance structures. A year followed working for an industrial training board before I saw an advert for a job at the TUC. The advert told very little about the vacancy to be filled. It was only after I reached the interview that I discovered they were looking particularly for someone to do research and briefing on industrial training policy. My experience at the ITB, I think, got me the job and I was there for the next 37 years—serendipity.

Today’s debate is an opportunity to highlight again a terrible injustice suffered by a blameless group of workers, inflicted by an irresponsible and overmighty employer which appeared to feel that it could act with impunity. Fair compensation is long overdue and this scandal, to my mind, reinforces the message that trade unions are as vitally needed today as ever to provide effective representation for people at work and to hold employers to account.

The half a century since my entry to the TUC has seen remarkable changes in the world of work and of trade unionism. The mid-1970s saw the agreement between the Labour Government of the day and the TUC of what was termed the “social contract”. That saw the level of inflation in the economy reduced from around 24% in 1975 to 8% by 1978. That was a staggering achievement that appears largely forgotten now as the “winter of discontent” followed the breakdown of that agreement. History, of course, is written by the victors. That was followed by a long period of the demonisation of trade unionism, even termed at one point as “the enemy within”, with workers at GCHQ—Government Communications Headquarters—even being told that being a union member was not consistent with loyalty to the nation.

The Labour Government of 1997 righted that wrong at GCHQ and made other progressive changes. Trade union recognition rights were underpinned by law. The minimum wage lifted living standards for the lowest paid. The UK rejoined the European mainstream on rights and protections for people at work by signing up to the European Social Chapter, from which the previous Government had opted the UK out. But despite those achievements, there are long-term trends that have still left working people relatively poorer. In simple terms, inequality has grown as the coverage of collective bargaining and effective workplace representation has been weakened. A rebalancing is long, long overdue.

Good employers have nothing to fear from this. The story of trade unionism is often told by reflecting on major disputes. I understand why the drama of such events appeals to news editors but for most trade unionists the real story is of agreements being made, with good employment relations being a crucial part of the mix in building competitive and successful organisations. Change is so much better managed with understanding and consent.

One letter I received as TUC general secretary reflected that reality in a graphic way. It came from 12 individuals who had together come through an educational programme established by their trade union under the TUC’s Unionlearn initiative, in a partnership between their employer and a local college, to deliver basic literacy and numeracy skills. They told me that the experience and skills gained had completely transformed their lives—to their benefit, of course, but also to the benefit of their employer; a win-win if ever there was one. Crucially, those individuals would never have had the confidence to get involved if the invitation had come just from their employer or the local college. It was only the support of the union that persuaded them to risk re-entering a classroom, in which they had always previously felt a failure. The letter to me, thanking trade unionism for making that difference, finished by saying that it was the first letter any of them had ever sent in their life. That was truly humbling. At its peak, Unionlearn was helping over a quarter of a million people a year back into learning, and I hope our new Government will restore the support that made that possible.

During my time at the TUC, I also served on the Court of Directors of the Bank of England under the dedicated leadership of the noble Lord, Lord King of Lothbury. That brought me up close to the global financial crisis of 2008-09, with all the terrifying risks to the fabric of our financial system.

Since leaving the TUC, I have been fortunate to serve on the boards of Transport for London and Openreach, and the Financial Services Culture Board, each with hugely important public interest missions, and from each of which I have learned a great deal. I was proud to chair ACAS for six years; it does such important work, often behind the scenes, in resolving so many difficult disputes. My time as a trustee of the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts has also been a delight, dedicated as it is to opening up the hugely successful education and professional training it provides to young people from all backgrounds, so delivering opportunities to make the careers that their talent deserves.

Now, as I embark on this new chapter, I am sure that I will again have an opportunity to learn many new lessons from noble Lords and noble Baronesses in all parts of the House and from the dedicated staff, who have all given me such a warm and kind welcome, for which I thank them most sincerely. I look forward to this next phase of my lifelong learning journey.