Lambeth’s Green council leader has slammed PM Andy Burnham for his ‘free youth Labour for Sainsbury’s’ plan – which just happens to benefit one of Burnham’s major donors. Burnham went to Lambeth to launch his stunt – many say con – yet did not invite local council leader Martin Abrams.

And Abrams pulled no punches in outlining the scale of the free workforce Burnham’s workfare scheme is handing to his billionaire donor’s company:

Prime Minister Andy Burnham came to Lambeth yesterday to promote Sainsbury’s workfare scheme for 10,000 young people to work for free in their supermarkets.

Sainsbury’s cut 3000 jobs last year while simultaneously posting a £1 billion profit.

Strangely the Leader of Lambeth… pic.twitter.com/eHhWo6a9mA

— Cllr Martin Abrams (@Martin_Abrams) August 27, 2026

Sainsbury’s: cut jobs, gain forced labour

Sainsbury’s, according to the government’s spin, has “created 10,000 work experience opportunities for young people”. Like army recruitment, the scheme will target poor communities:

New programme launching from October will target schools with higher levels of free school meal uptake and communities where young people face some of the biggest barriers to work

But the young people will be paid benefits from the public purse, not wages from Sainsburys’ fat accounts – and will face ‘conditionality’ that means they will lose benefits if they don’t agree to work for nothing.

Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, will fatten its profits even further – and have free workers to replace the 3,000 it made redundant last year while announcing an annual profit of over £1bn.

As well as funding Burnham directly, David Sainsbury is also a huge funder of what used to be called ‘Labour Together’ – the sabotage outfit that manufactured Keir Starmer’s leadership of Labour and now runs Burnham.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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