TUC Conference: Ed Balls is jeered by union members

LABOUR’s shadow Chancellor Ed Balls was jeered by trade union delegates yesterday when he used his speech to the TUC’s conference to call on them not to strike and accept pay restraint.

• Ed Balls booed after comments on public sector pay freeze

• Unison general secretary criticises shadow chancellor for comments

Union delegates reacted angrily to Mr Balls when he told a delegate in a question-and-answer session that a Labour government would have to continue with pay restraint and were unimpressed by his appeal not to “return to the 1980s”.

Mr Balls also warned unions that if they carry out the threat to strike then they risk falling into a Conservative trap and could be blamed for the faltering economy.

Mr Balls received polite applause after attacking the government’s “failed” economic policies and calling for alternatives, but it turned to heckling when he made it clear he would not change his mind on public sector pay despite sparking anger last year by supporting restraint.

He said there would have been spending cuts if Labour had won the last election, admitting there would be “disappointment and difficult decisions from which we cannot flinch”.

He added: “The question the public will ask is, who can I trust? A radical plan to kick-start our recovery, put jobs first and transform our economy will only be possible if we can win the trust of the British people.”

Mr Balls also maintained that ordinary workers in financial services were as “shocked and dismayed” as everyone else about the “gross irresponsibility” of millionaire bankers.

“People working in financial services, on ordinary salaries, who want banks to work for the long-term interests of the economy, do not deserve to be pilloried for their hard work and service.”

The shadow chancellor backed union opposition to any move towards regional pay in the public sector, saying it would set hospitals and schools against each other.

He said the Prime Minister was “increasingly trapped”, with an economic plan which was not working and a deeply divided Conservative Party.

He was questioned by Unison delegate Liz Cameron on why he was supporting the pay policy of the Tories, which had led to a wage freeze for millions of public sector workers.

She was cheered by other delegates during the question-and-answer session when she complained about the response from Mr Balls and Labour leader Ed Miliband to public sector pay.

Mr Balls replied that in the current economic climate, jobs were more important than pay rises. “When you are losing hundreds of thousands of jobs, you cannot say the first priority is more pay for public sector workers,” he said. “That is the reality because of the government’s failure on the economy. We have always said let us put jobs first.”

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: “If he really understood the massive impact of a three-year pay freeze on families struggling to pay for food and fuel, or forced to turn to pay-day loans where interest can be a terrifying 4,000 per cent, he too would be calling for an end to the pay freeze.”

Bob Crow, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said: “It’s all very well Ed Balls wading into the government but what working people want to know is when the Labour front bench is going to stand side by side with us on the streets.”