THERESA May is targeting traditional Labour voters unhappy with Jeremy Corbyn with a promise of the “greatest expansion in workers’ rights by any Conservative government in history”

In her so-called Red Tory strategy, the Prime Minister promised a package of extra rights, a national living wage, and new protections for workers in the “gig economy”.

The SNP’s Angus Robertson called it a “sick joke”, while Corbyn called it “nonsense”.

The Tories had weeks ago pencilled in yesterday as their manifesto launch day, but last week pushed that back to Thursday, while May’s top team refine the detail. But in an article for yesterday’s FT, the Prime Minister laid out some of what will be in the party’s offer to voters.

“The Conservative Party has always been the true party of the workers,” she claimed in a newspaper which describes its audience as the “global elite making the biggest decisions in the political and corp- orate world, and high-net-worth, discerning consumers who seek out the best life has to offer”.

May continued: “At this great moment of national change, when the country is choosing which leader will take us through the Brexit negotiations and beyond, it is the Conserv-ative Party that is the voice of ord-inary working people once again.”

There were a number of pledges in the article, including plans to give bereaved parents statutory time off from work.

There were also offers of a “new right to request leave for training purposes, to help workers gain the skills they need to retain good, well-paid jobs,” and “new rights for workers to take leave to care for a family member”.

Under the Tories, she added, laws would be introduced to give employees a greater stake in the companies they work for along with represent-ation for workers on company boards.

May also insisted that every employee would have a statutory right to receive information about key decisions affecting their company’s future, and that firms would be told to treat those who “invest their labour” the same as “those who invest their capital.”

There would be an increase in the living wage “in a way that is fair to businesses and workers”.

“By providing certainty on workers’ rights, we can make leaving the EU an opportunity to shape a brighter future for every business and employee in the country and ensure they continue to prosper,” May added.

Robertson said: “For the Tories to claim that they will stand up for workers’ rights really is like some kind of sick joke.

“The Tories are currently taking a wrecking ball to workers’ rights with their iniquitous Trade Union Bill, they are overseeing the biggest squeeze on wages since the Second World War, and they are hammering working families with their cuts to working tax credits.

“Thanks to this Tory government, work is no longer a route out of poverty for many people – a terrible indictment on their record in office.

“And, of course, for many leading Tory Brexiteers such as Priti Patel, the whole point of leaving the EU was so they could roll back on EU employment protections, which they described coldly as ‘red tape’.”

Corbyn told reporters: “Would this be the same Prime Minister who presides over an economy where six million people earn less than the living wage, where a million are on zero hours contracts, and whose party created tribunal fees to prevent people who suffer injustice at work from taking their case to an independent tribunal to get a fair hearing?

“This is such nonsense – this is a government that has damaged working conditions, that hasn’t ensured safety or security at work, that doesn’t guarantee rights at work from the first day of employment.

“Look at what we’re suggesting, and you will see a real charter for workers’ rights.”