FILM director Ken Loach has spoken out in York in support of health and safety in the workplace - claiming that those who deride it have safe jobs.

He also spoke of his fears that Brexit and a Tory General Election victory could lead to the further weakening of worker protection, which he claimed was already hit by an increase in the use of sub-contractors and agency workers.

York Press:

Speaking after attending a Workers Memorial Day event organised by York TUC, the left wing veteran claimed that Brexit and the potential loss of regulations protecting workers’ rights ‘should worry everybody.’

He said employers ‘and the politicians who speak for them- such as Theresa May and parties such as UKIP’ - called it ‘red tape’, and so would want to get rid of it.

“We need far more protection- even in the EU, worker protection is secondary to employer profits.

“The people who deride health and safety are the people who have safe jobs,” he said. “The people whose work is dangerous need health and safety.”

He said the UK was seeing an increase in suicides at work. “The pressure of work is much greater now. People are working for agencies and don’t know if they are going to be working from one day to the next.”

The outspoken supporter of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he thought the election of a Labour Government in June was ‘an essential step.’

He said: “I don’t think it would be the end of the battle. There would be resistance. Every step would be fought by employers. Also to transform society the Labour Party has to be transformed. He is standing on the right ideas I think they need to go further.”

Asked if he thought Labour had any chance of winning the election, given its poor standing in the opinion polls, he said that if people knew what was in Labour’s programme, it would be very hard not to see them voting for it, and ‘eventually the tide will turn.’

The packed free event at the National Centre for Early Music off Walmgate included a showing of Loach’s 1991 film Riff Raff, starring Robert Carlyle and Ricky Tomlinson, which featured health and safety breaches on a building site that led to a man’s death.

There were speeches from York TUC president Leigh Wilks and York Central Labour MP Rachael Maskell.

She spoke about the dangers in the workplace suffered most notably by fellow Labour MP Jo Cox and policeman Keith Palmer, who were both murdered in the course of their public duties.

There was also be a short service of remembrance for Workers’ Memorial Day by a humanist minister.