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Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 16 June 2025

Debate

Employment Rights Bill

Contribution

My Lords, likewise, I have spent the last 40 years advising SME businesses—not always with success, but I do not have a bad track record. Therefore, I support my noble friend Lord Hunt of Wirral’s very appropriate and wise amendment. I know that he too has spent many years advising SME companies from a legal perspective, so he, like me, has a relationship and dialogue with them. I can tell your Lordships that every single SME company that I have spoken to has honestly no idea of what is in Part 4: they have not tuned in to it or focused on it. They have their own worries—business rates, NICs, trade, oil, energy, you name it—so this is not on their radar. We have received representations from a galaxy of their representatives, such as the British Retail Consortium, the Institute of Directors, the CBI even, the family small businesses association, the British Chambers of Commerce—the list goes on—all of which say that there has been no dialogue and no opportunity to make representations to government.
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