PCG to take IR35 fight to Labour conference fringe meeting
The Professional Contractors Group will hold a fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton on Wednesday 3rd October to raise the issue of IR35 and other contracting matters with MPs.
All Labour MPs will be sent an invitation to attend the meeting, entitled 'The Case for Freelancers, Small Business and the Self-employed.'
The PCG is urging its 14,000 members to write to their local MPs to ask if they would attend the meeting and listen to their concerns about operating their businesses within the contracting sector.
Philip Ross, PCG spokesman and organiser of the event, said: "The PCG is on a mission to explain and educate. To educate Government, all political parties and industry and commerce about the value and important contribution that freelancers, contractors, small businesses and the self-employed make to the economy. That is what we will be doing at the Labour Party conference and at our fringe meeting.
"As an organisation one of our greatest concerns is that IT is too often perceived as being just the large manufacturers or consultancy companies, whereas in fact, we believe that it is the independent consultants that are the true dynamo of our knowledge economy."
PCG members have lobbied their local MPs since the creation of the Group in 1999, leading to Lord McIntosh of Haringey, to previously tell the House of Commons: "I have never encountered such a literate, persuasive series of letters. Ministers have received something like 2,000 letters. They are literate, well spelt, well argued and persuasive."
The format of the meeting will be for speakers: Tony McWalter - MP for Hemel Hempstead, Andy White - Founder of the PCG and Nigel Lockett of the Management School of Lancaster University to give a series of short talks, followed by a question and answer session from the floor.
A buffet and refreshments will follow the meeting which will take place between 6:00pm - 8:00pm at The Walnut Suite in the Quality Hotel, West Street, Brighton.
Further details can be found on the PCG website.
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Richard Powell, UKTECH