A Birmingham MP has warned Prime Minister Theresa May not to listen to her new policy advisor’s plans to cut employment rights and cut wages for workers in poor areas.

Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood says that the appointment of Tory MP George Freeman as head of the Prime Minister’s policy board seems to fly in the face of her pledge to heal and unite the country and tackle inequality .

Mr Freeman, the Mid-Norfolk MP, has previously said that people working in new firms should have no employment rights, such as maternity pay, paid leave and minimum wages.

He argued that new businesses should be excused from meeting workers rights as well as rates and taxes for three years. Mr Freeman also backs a low ten per cent corporation tax.

It is in contrast to Theresa May’s landmark speech in Birmingham earlier this month in which she outlined her ambition to close the wealth gap and ensure the economy ‘works for everyone’ not just the few - including putting workers representatives in company boardrooms.

Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood
Khalid Mahmood

Mr Mahmood said: “The appointment of George Freeman appears to contradict everything Theresa May said in her speeches in Birmingham and Downing Street.

“He has supported policies which are bad for working people and would increase inequality and division. This would be a retrograde step.

“I hope she would not support any policy to reduce workers rights. Following the Brexit vote we need the country to pull together.”

According to the Daily Mirror , Mr Freeman’s proposals were included in a policy paper called The Innovation Economy Industrial Policy for the 21st Century he co-wrote three years ago. He proposed both minimum wages and public sector pay should be “regionalised”.

And he suggested: “We should exempt new firms for their first three years from employers’ national insurance, business rates, corporation tax and employment legislation.”

As well as halving corporation tax for the biggest firms, he also said green energy subsidies could be abolished.

His new role will be to “help shape the new Government’s programme” and guide “the deep economic and social reforms we need to make”.

Both Downing Street and Mr Freeman declined to comment.