Bad Blair day for Miliband at TUC

ED MILIBAND roused memories of Tony Blair’s leadership of the Labour party yesterday after he was heckled and booed by trade unionists for attacking their strikes this summer.

In a throwback to the former Prime Minister’s testy relationship with union chiefs, Mr Miliband used a speech at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to declare he was unmoved on his position not to back strike action involving teachers and civil servants over pensions.

Strikes, he said “were always the consequence of failure. Failure on all sides. Failure we cannot afford as a nation”, The strikes, he said, were “a mistake” while negotiations were on-going.

The comments at the meeting in London prompted shouts of “shame” from some of the 300 delegates. They came as unions gear up for more industrial action this autumn.

Mr Miliband’s confrontation follows a leadership election last year in which the union vote was crucial in ensuring his victory over brother David.

The younger Miliband was backed by union chiefs in the belief he was more left-wing than his brother.

Mr Miliband is understood to be proposing moves to reduce union voting power in future.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, said Mr Miliband “needed to decide just whose side he is on”. “Criticising teachers and other workers taking strike action to defend jobs, services and pensions alienates core labour supporters and is a political suicide mission,” he said.

“A Labour leader who doesn’t stand by the workers is on a one-way ticket to oblivion.”