Labour peer David Blunkett calls for workers to return to office
Lord David Blunkett has thrown his weight behind calls for workers to return to the office, urging Brits to “be confident” about getting back to normal life.
The Labour peer today warned the government’s stay at home messaging was still resonating with many people.
“Getting parents to be confident about their children going to school, getting people who need to be in the office – or the workplace generally – back in is a big struggle,” he told the BBC.
“So I think the message has got to be: Be confident, we’re still at risk, we still have to be careful, but we can do it.”
The former home secretary, who stepped down as an MP in 2015, said he will return to London when the House of Lords returns from summer recess tomorrow.
“I think we’ve got to set an example and I think that the civil service have got to set an example,” he said.
Blunkett placed particular emphasis on the return of civil servants to Whitehall, adding: “I suspect some of the mess-ups we’ve had is because people aren’t in contact with each other in a meaningful way.”
The government has kicked off a campaign encouraging Brits to return to the office in a bid to bolster the faltering UK economy after months of lockdown caused by the coronavirus lockdown.
Business groups have backed the calls, with CBI boss Carolyn Fairbairn warning that inner cities would turn into “ghost towns” if workers do not return.
But the plans have met with opposition from mandarins, and the union representing civil servants has threatened to go on strike if staff are forced to return to the office when it is unsafe to do so.
Recent analysis showed just 17 per cent of people have returned to work in the UK’s 63 largest cities — unchanged from June when the lockdown started to lift.
But Downing Street is hoping the return of schools in England today will help to accelerate the back-to-work process.