Labour is preparing to announce watered-down plans for a ban on late-night office emails after softening a workers’ rights package championed by Angela Rayner. The party is expected to reveal that it has ditched plans for a legal “right to switch off” from work emails and calls out of hours, instead including the rule in a code of practice for companies over a certain size. It is also expected to make clear that companies will still be able to fairly sack workers under its ‘day one’ workers’ rights, which protects staff from unfair dismissal. The softer proposals are likely to be welcomed by businesses after months of lobbying but risk being interpreted as a defeat for Ms Rayner, the Labour deputy leader, who has previously vowed to deliver the “biggest levelling-up of workers’ rights in decades”. Labour insiders said the renewed package of reforms will simply spell out more clearly policies that were discussed with businesses and unions last summer and will not show any significant departure from what was already agreed. But it triggered immediate criticism from trade unions and the left of the party, who warned that any backtracking would be a betrayal. Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT transport union, said: “Labour must...