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.

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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.