Reform UK has announced a plan called the 'Women and Motherhood Protection Act' that would give pregnant workers and new mothers more time to file complaints if they lose their jobs. Right now, workers have three months to file a claim. The proposal would extend that to 12 months.

This matters because many pregnant workers and new mothers miss the current three-month deadline. They're on leave, caring for a newborn, or dealing with the stress of losing a job—and three months passes quickly.

The Trades Union Congress, which represents millions of British workers, pushed back fast. It called the proposal "shameless and deceptive," saying Reform is using this one good idea to distract from other policies that would actually hurt women at work. The union didn't list exactly which policies it meant, but tensions have been building.

In June, leaders from the biggest unions told Nigel Farage they would not join or support Reform UK. That's a big deal. Reform has been trying to convince working-class voters that it's on their side, but major unions said no—before Reform even published this motherhood plan.

The 12-month filing window is the real, useful part of this proposal. Right now, if a pregnant worker is fired, she has to file a complaint within three months under Employment Tribunal rules. But many new mothers are still on leave or caring for a baby during those three months. Giving them 12 months instead would be genuinely helpful. Employment lawyers have been asking for this change for years.

But here's where the union's skepticism comes in. The rest of the plan just promises to keep maternity protections as they are now. That's not new. It's not expansion. If you're an opposition party trying to show you care about workers, saying "we will not take away rights you already have" is not the same as saying "we will give you new rights."

So the union's charge of 'deceptive' lands here: the headline makes it sound big and new. The actual content mostly repeats what law already says.

Politically, here's what's happening. Reform has been climbing in opinion polls. The party wants to build a coalition of voters fed up with Labour, including working-class women. A 'Women and Motherhood Protection Act' is a way to say, "We care about you too"—on territory that Labour and the unions have owned for decades. Unions see this as a genuine threat, not a joke.

There's a deeper problem for Reform. In Britain, maternity and employment law comes from statutes, from rules left over from EU membership, and from court decisions. A party without power can't change any of this. And if Reform wins power but pushes to remove regulations from the workplace—which unions say it wants to do—there's a contradiction. You can't promise stronger worker protections while weakening the systems that actually enforce them.

Unions have seen this before: a party makes big promises about rights, but then removes the tools that make those rights real—things like legal aid to help workers afford lawyers, rules that let workers join unions, or agencies to investigate complaints.

For the lawyers, HR teams, and union staff who actually help workers fight unfair dismissal, the 12-month filing window would be genuinely useful. That's a real improvement. For now, whether the rest of it matters depends on whether Reform ever gets into government and what it actually does with employment law when it gets there.