‘The whole system needs fixing’: Frances O’Grady on the UK’s recovery from coronavirus

The general secretary of the TUC tells James Moore what we need to get the UK economy moving again, and laments the lack of green initiatives that could have delivered much-needed jobs

O’Grady: ‘We need a Biden boost’ (EPA)

Frances O’Grady lives her life at high speed. Even a global pandemic hasn’t been able to slow the TUC general secretary down. But while she has adapted to working remotely, like millions of other British workers, the transition hasn’t been easy for her because of who she is.

“I think you know me well enough to know that I’m a social creature, so this is torture in some ways. I really miss people,” she tells me. Inevitably, we’re connecting using technology, in this case Microsoft Teams. Its software O’Grady uses regularly but she admits there’s been the occasional banana skin.