The BDBF Podcast: News and Insights for the Employment Law Community
May 26, 2026 · 28 min · 8 segments
**Can Blair's 1997 reforms help the employment law sector prepare for the forthcoming ERA changes?** In this episode, host **Tom McLaughlin** is joined by *BDBF* managing partner **Gareth Brahams**…
Gareth BrahamsGuest
Tom McLaughlinHost
Gareth, you'd been in practice as a qualified lawyer for a couple of years when Tony Blair came to power in 1997.
Can you remind us a little bit about the economic and social conditions that existed at that time?
It's very easy to equate that with the 14 years of conservative slash conservative coalition government that we just had.
There was a sort of dryness to the Thatcher major years economically, which didn't apply during certainly Boris Johnson's time, which maybe Rishi Sunak would have liked to have returned to.
But I would say it felt like we'd been run by, like, one of those treasurers who just doesn't want you to spend any money on anything ever.
We'd had 18 years of, yes, the union's ha- power had been brought to heel, and I think many people thought that was a good thing.
But in terms of individual employment rights, there had been no real developments at all.
If anything, the rights were being eroded because there was a cap on compensation for unfair dismissal, which for an awfully long time stayed at £11,300.
I remember just towards the end, they put it up to £12,000, and that was about as exciting as it got.
And in the meanwhile, and it seems so weird to be saying this, it felt like we were being left behind by Europe, and we were the reluctant passenger on the European train.
And, of course, part of the things that were going on there, there was a lot of excitement about completion of the single market at the end of 1992.
And we'd, of course, resisted elements of that in terms of obviously eco- economic monetary union, but also the social chapter as it was then called, or then became the Social Charter.
So there was an element of, like, there was a lot going on out there, and we were missing out because the kind of mean, dry Tories were keeping us out of all the kind of nice little add-ons we could get.
Where there, there was a great kind of burst of freedom and excitement that we'd finally thrown off the shackles of, like, the sort of mean but careful managers of our economy.
And so you've had 18 years of conservative government through Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and a dearth of new employment regulation during that period.
Gareth, you'd been in practice as a qualified lawyer for a couple of years when Tony Blair came to power in 1997.
Can you remind us a little bit about the economic and social conditions that existed at that time?
It's very easy to equate that with the 14 years of conservative slash conservative coalition government that we just had.
There was a sort of dryness to the Thatcher major years economically, which didn't apply during certainly Boris Johnson's time, which maybe Rishi Sunak would have liked to have returned to.
But I would say it felt like we'd been run by, like, one of those treasurers who just doesn't want you to spend any money on anything ever.
We'd had 18 years of, yes, the union's ha- power had been brought to heel, and I think many people thought that was a good thing.
But in terms of individual employment rights, there had been no real developments at all.
If anything, the rights were being eroded because there was a cap on compensation for unfair dismissal, which for an awfully long time stayed at £11,300.
I remember just towards the end, they put it up to £12,000, and that was about as exciting as it got.
And in the meanwhile, and it seems so weird to be saying this, it felt like we were being left behind by Europe, and we were the reluctant passenger on the European train.
And, of course, part of the things that were going on there, there was a lot of excitement about completion of the single market at the end of 1992.
And we'd, of course, resisted elements of that in terms of obviously eco- economic monetary union, but also the social chapter as it was then called, or then became the Social Charter.
So there was an element of, like, there was a lot going on out there, and we were missing out because the kind of mean, dry Tories were keeping us out of all the kind of nice little add-ons we could get.
Where there, there was a great kind of burst of freedom and excitement that we'd finally thrown off the shackles of, like, the sort of mean but careful managers of our economy.
And so you've had 18 years of conservative government through Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and a dearth of new employment regulation during that period.
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