I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for an annual national public holiday on the Friday nearest to 23 June; and for connected purposes.
I thank my excellent senior parliamentary assistant, Jordan Ayres, for his help with this.
This public holiday will be called United Kingdom Day. In the recent Queen’s Speech, the Government included an employment Bill, which is intended to
“Protect and enhance workers’ rights”
in the UK post Brexit, and one very important issue that the Government should consider when enhancing workers’ rights is that of public holidays. In England and Wales, we have only eight of those each year. We have the lowest number of bank holidays in Europe—Germany has nine; France, Poland and Italy have 11; Greece and Belgium have 12; Austria has 13; Malta has 14; and Cyprus has 17. In the ranking of public holidays throughout the world, the UK is drastically low, at 226th out of 246 countries.
Given that ours is the fifth largest economy in the world, and given that we have world-leading experts on medical research, financial services, aerospace technology, artificial intelligence, electronic systems and much more, it is time that the Government recognised the tremendous work carried out by British people. If we are serious about wanting to enhance workers’ rights, let us at least create one extra bank holiday. Critics will argue that businesses will have to absorb an extra day of paid leave for their workers, but every four years, owing to the leap year, millions of people up and down the country already work an extra day for free on 29 February.
I spent more than 30 years in business, and anyone who has run a business knows that its success is down not to them, but to the quality and productivity of their employees. Companies do not succeed by making workers work as for many hours as possible; they succeed if their employees are happy and productive.
Apart from those in Northern Ireland, there are no bank holidays between May and August, and a bank holiday in June would help to break up that long gap. Workers would have a day off to look forward to, at a time when the weather should be good, which would not only have a positive effect on their health and wellbeing, but be a great boost to their productivity, in turn helping businesses to thrive and prosper.
There are a number of reasons why the Friday nearest to 23 June each year should be the new bank holiday. First, the second Monday in June is Her Majesty’s official birthday. She is the longest-serving monarch in our history, and this would be a fantastic opportunity to celebrate her service and dedication to our great country. Moreover, the Queen was crowned in June. Throughout the intervening time, she has been a steadfast and devoted monarch. It would be fitting to allow the people of the United Kingdom to celebrate Her Majesty’s birthday, all her wonderful achievements, and the way in which she guides the country through all its highs and lows.