Skip to main content
NEU job vacancy
Wilko: we once came close to preventing these crises
The 12,500 jobs lost at Wilko echo the industrial vandalism of Tories in the 1980s. New Labour had plans to put in place a safety net — but will Keir Starmer resurrect these, asks KEITH FLETT
General view inside Wilko in Brownhills near Walsall, one of the first Wilko stores to close down

DESPITE the best efforts of the GMB union it seems like all Wilko stores will close in the next few weeks with the loss of 12,500 jobs.

The impact will be significant. People will lose jobs in a cost-of-living crisis and communities will lose another well-used high street shop. A powerful speech by a Wilko union rep at the TUC in Liverpool rightly received unanimous support.

Further, Labour leader Keir Starmer recognised the point on social media, arguing that a Labour government will give people like the Wilko workers, thrown on the scrap heap by owners who paid themselves millions when the company was in trouble, hope for the future.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch at their local election campaign launch at The Curzon Centre in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, March 20, 2025
Features / 14 May 2025
14 May 2025

KEITH FLETT traces how the ‘world’s most successful political party’ has imploded since Thatcher’s fall, from nine leaders in 30 years to losing all 16 English councils, with Reform UK symbolically capturing Peel’s birthplace, Tamworth — but the beast is not dead yet

STILL MARCHING: A May Day demo makes its way through London, 1973
Features / 1 May 2025
1 May 2025

KEITH FLETT revisits the 1978 origins of Britain’s May Day bank holiday — from Michael Foot’s triumph to Thatcher’s reluctant acceptance — as Starmer’s government dodges calls to expand our working-class celebrations

EVEN FURTHER RIGHT: Margaret Thatcher
meets the press outsid
Features / 16 February 2025
16 February 2025
KEITH FLETT looks back 50 years to when the Iron Lady was elected Tory leader…
Features / 23 January 2025
23 January 2025
Britain’s first woman Chancellor delivers the same old fudge, as Labour’s commitment to economic orthodoxy, seen throughout its history, always betrays working people, writes KEITH FLETT