THE Chancellor should use his first budget to protect young people seeking work from exploitation of firms looking for free labour.

Stewart McDonald, Glasgow South SNP MP has written to Rishi Sunak, ahead of the Budget today.

Mr McDonald had a previous Bill to outlaw unpaid work trial, rejected at Westminster as it was “talked out” by MPs opposed to it, meaning it ran out of time.

However, he said he has continued to campaign on the issue and said the Budget is a perfect opportunity for the Government to act.

Mr McDonald said: “This unfair practice remains a blight on our employment sector and is exploitative to workers, particularly young people, students and migrants.

“If people are going to be offered a trial period where they apply their skills in the hope of securing work then they should be paid fairly and properly.”

Mr McDonald said there was public support for action to prevent unpaid work trial shifts, which he said was a “scourge on society” and his bill had the support of unions, legal experts, employers and across political parties.

A study from Middlesex University found that around £3billion is lost in wages to workers each year and unpaid trial shifts contributed to the total.

The MP said: “The only way to address this is for measures to be taken to ban this dated practice.

“The Budget is therefore an ideal chance to do so.

“The Chancellor could do this by supporting a ban on unpaid trials, alongside further investment and support for preventative measures, such as giving HMRC the powers to penalise all companies that advertise unpaid work trials and ensuring workers who have been asked to complete unpaid trials are all paid back for the work they have done.”

The Budget is Mr Sunak’s first after just four weeks in the job after taking over as Chancellor from Sajid Javid who resigned in a row over special advisers with Boris Johnson.

It is not expected that he will raise or lower income tax in the budget but measures to help firms and workers cope with the impact on the economy of the coronavirus outbreak.

This is the budget that should have been delivered in November but was delayed because of the Election.