Member

Noble Lords will remember that in 2016, to take one example, the Financial Conduct Authority banned opt-out selling in financial services to prevent consumers being defaulted into purchasing add-on products. In other words, they were no longer automatically enrolled in add-on products unless they actively chose to be. As I recollect—I served in the other place then, but my memory might be wrong and I am prepared to be corrected—the then Opposition, the Labour Party, supported it. If it is good for financial services and if the inherent merits of joining a trade union cannot be sold to people to encourage them to opt into a union, that speaks volumes. Notwithstanding what the noble Lord, Lord Prentis, has said—as I have said before, I am not anti-trade union; I was a member of one and they do an excellent job in providing, for instance, commercial services to their members—there is something slightly sinister and pernicious about changing what came before, which was amended by previous Governments.