The Prime Minister has backed a move towards more working from home after senior Labour figures pushed for wide-ranging workplace reforms.

Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman warned that a "culture of presenteeism" was driving down productivity, following plans to hand staff across the country the "right to switch off" and impose fines on bosses who contacted employees out of hours.

He said: "Good employers understand that for workers to stay motivated and productive, they do need to be able to switch off and a culture of presenteeism can be damaging to productivity.

"It's about making sure we have the right balance between making the most of the flexible working practices that we saw following the pandemic, with also having appropriate arrangements in place to ensure that people can stay productive."

But research into working from home has debunked its supposed productivity bump.

A study of over 1,500 workers at a Chinese tech firm found that despite making workers "happier", there was no real increase in output.

Stanford University's Nicholas Bloom said the results would surprise people who "love working from home and expect large productivity gains" - as well as those who "hate working from home and expected the productivity impacts to be really negative".

Bloom told The Times: "Their claim would be that all the time saved travelling and the quiet at home would lead to a productivity surge for remote work."

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