Jeremy Corbyn is wrong to tar the entire gig economy with the same brush

In a raging and rousing speech to the TUC in Brighton this week, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn took aim at the UK’s ‘unscrupulous’ bosses. He reserved particular scorn for the so-called ‘gig economy’, which he presented as little more than a front for ‘bogus self-employment’.

Now, it’s certainly true that there are problems in the gig economy. There are indeed a small number of unscrupulous companies who use the confusion in the gig economy to exploit vulnerable workers, denying their rights and forcing them into self-employment. But it would be a serious mistake to tar the whole sector with the same brush. There is much more going on in the gig economy than this myopic picture suggests.

Not to be confused with the prolific, 4.85 million-strong self-employed workforce, the gig economy is also a dynamic and highly productive sector.