No; there's plenty of scope in English law for genuine self-employment. Genuinely self-employed people using a marketplace to find work are not employees of the

No; there's plenty of scope in English law for genuine self-employment. Genuinely self-employed people using a marketplace to find work are not employees of the marketplace. But if you (in reality) look like an employee of an intermediary firm - they have control over what, when, and how you work, you can't substitute yourself with a colleague or sub-contractor, and so on - then the state will ignore the 'form' of the contract you've signed and look to the substance. In many of these cases (especially those of the new courier firms who 'self-'employ drivers/deliverers) it looks and smells like an employment relationship. The courts are entitled to find that that's what it is.