New Labour was elected on a promise to combine ‘fairness’ and ‘flexibility’ in its labour market policies. In the section on business in its 1997 manifesto, New Labour promised to ‘introduce minimum standards for the individual at work’. At the same time, New Labour promised to ‘build a new
partnership with business to improve the competitiveness of the British industry for the 21st Century, leading to faster growth’. Measures such as a Minimum Wage and new means for unions to be recognised would take place; within a flexible labour market’.
