Today I saw an example of a true lie. Every fact in the graphic above is true. The meaning given to those facts is false. This is government misinformation in action. It is deliberate. To begin with they are not comparing like with like. The UK is a sovereign state. The EU is not. Ironically the government confirmed this last week to justify their decision that, post Brexit, the EU mission in the UK would no longer have full diplomatic status even though it enjoys this status in scores of countries around the world who have never been in Europe, never mind the EU.

All the arguments about sovereignty have obscured the fact that every member state of the EU has sovereignty. As France showed when it temporarily closed its borders to the UK during the emergence of the new variant Covid virus in the UK. So I propose to examine how the rest of the EU nations used their sovereignty to deliver on the items in the graphic above.

Minimum Wage

There is no EU directive on the minimum wage. Nevertheless 21 of the 27 EU members have a minimum wage. Moreover the Tories seem to have forgotten that when a Labour government led by Tony Blair introduced minimum pay legislation in 1998 they all voted against it.

Sick Pay

The facts presented are true. We have 28 weeks minimum entitlement to sick pay and there is no minimum in the EU. But plenty of EU countries pay more than we do. At the start of the Covid crisis when Jeremy Corbyn was still leader he called on the government to raise sick pay to match the entitlement in the EU. The Birmingham Mail reported that “In 2018 the European Committee of Social Rights found the UK’s sick pay system was “manifestly inadequate” and “not in conformity” with legal obligations under the European Social Charter.” That remains the case.

Maternity

The Tory graphic shows figures for entitlement to leave but not entitlement to pay. In the UK that amounts to the equivalent of 12 weeks on full pay spread over 39 weeks. According to the Scotsman we are one of the worst countries in Europe for paid parental leave and affordable childcare.

Holidays

Our 28 day holiday entitlement is higher than the EU 20 day minimum because we had to pass a law to stop employers including public holidays in that entitlement. But apart from the Netherlands all EU members have more public holidays than us and added to their statutory holiday entitlement every EU country has more holidays than the UK.

So there you have it. On every measure in the Tory party graphic we are doing worse than comparable states in the EU. It was not EU membership that stopped us being world beating. It was the priorities of the Tory Government. If they were serious about defending workers rights they would be stepping in to make practices like British Gas Fire and Rehire illegal. That really would be an exercise in sovereignty and taking back control.