Andy Burnham has drawn criticism for promoting an unpaid work experience scheme by Sainsbury’s.

The prime minister last week announced the supermarket chain would offer 10,000 placements to young people from October, with a focus on those receiving free school meals, as part of his government’s bid to tackle youth unemployment.

But critics noted that Sainsbury’s laid off 3,000 workers in 2025 despite posting more than £1bn in operating profits, and accused the prime minister of helping the company to exploit free labour from underprivileged communities.

“Andy Burnham promised to ‘end neoliberalism’ but supporting a scheme to provide free labour for billion-pound companies will only serve to perpetuate it,” Martin Abrams, the Green party leader of Lambeth Council, wrote on X.

“Lambeth’s young people deserve better than this; quality apprenticeships and training that provide them with the skills, experience and pay to live and thrive in our borough.”

Burnham, along with London mayor Sadiq Khan, visited a branch of Sainsbury’s in Lambeth to promote the scheme.

Other critics noted that Lord Sainsbury – whose great-grandfather founded the company and who is still a shareholder via his Gatsby Charitable Foundation – is a major donor to the Labour party and recently gave Burnham £160,000 for his uncontested leadership campaign.

Writing in the National, journalist Hamish Morrison accused Burnham of giving Sainsbury’s a “PR bung”.

He added that, although Lord Sainsbury is no longer involved in running the company, “it did seem fairly interesting that a company with which he had a longstanding historical connection – not to mention a multi-million pound interest in, albeit indirectly – got this boost from the government.”

Sainsbury’s told the newspaper the placements will not replace the work of paid employees, and will instead focus on things like CV-building workshops. “They aren’t doing the work of paid colleagues or filling employee roles,” a spokesperson said.

Job vacancies for UK university graduates have plummeted to their lowest level in decades, according to figures for July released by the recruitment website Adzuna.

From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.