Prime Minister promises new era of co-operation between unions and business, as he faces continued criticism over scrapping winter fuel payments

Today the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer will promise the Trade Union Congress (TUC) that his government will work to bring unions and business together with a shared purpose to deliver national renewal.

Addressing TUC delegates in Brighton, he will say he is championing the politics of partnership.

In a lengthy speech he will say: “I call now, as before the election, for the politics of partnership. With us in government, with business, and most importantly of all, with working people… the mood is for partnership. And not just on pay – on everything. To turn around our NHS, give our children the start in life they deserve, make our public services fit for the future, unlock the potential of clean energy. A new era of investment and reform. The common cause of national renewal.

“Partnership is a more difficult way of doing politics. I know there’s clarity in the old ways, the zero-sum ways: business versus worker, management versus union, public versus private. That kind of politics is not what the British people want.

“We have the chance to deliver for working people: young people, vulnerable people, the poorest in society, because we changed the Labour party. So when I say ‘country first, party second’ – that isn’t a slogan. It’s the guiding principle of everything this Government will do. We ran as a changed Labour Party and we will govern as a changed Labour party. So I make no apologies to those, still stuck in the 1980s, who believe that unions and business can only stand at odds, leaving working people stuck in the middle.

“And when I say to the public our policies will be pro-business and pro-worker, they don’t look at me as if I’m deluded, they see it as the most ordinary, sensible thing in the world. And I know there will always be disputes, but there is a mood of change in the business world, a growing understanding of the importance of good work and the shared self-interest that comes from treating the workforce with respect and dignity. The productivity gain of fairness which is an opportunity to be grasped.”

Repeating his political attack on the previous Conservative Government, he will accuse them of salting “the earth of Britain’s future to serve themselves”, and warn that the next couple of years will not be easy, hinting at yet more unpopular decisions around the nation’s finances in the Autumn Statement.

“I have to level with you, as I did on the steps of Downing Street just over two months ago, this will take a while. It will be hard. But just as we had to do the hard graft of change in our Party now we have to roll up our sleeves and change our country.

“When we finally saw the books, and with trust in politics so low, I had to be honest with the British people when standing in the full sunlight of democracy, I owed it to them to promise only what we knew we could deliver. And yet even in our worst fears we didn’t think it would be this bad. The pollution in our rivers, the overcrowding in our prisons, so much of our crumbling public realm – universities, councils, the care system, all even worse than we expected. Millions of pounds wasted on a Rwanda scheme that they knew would never work. Politics reduced to an expensive, divisive, noisy performance, a game to be played and not the force that can fundamentally change the lives of those we represent.”

The Prime Minister will go on to promise the biggest levelling up of workers’ rights in a generation. “Let’s be clear why we need this bill. It’s because this government is committed to driving up living standards, improving productivity, and working in partnership with workers. And as part of that bill we will repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act, we will get rid of Minimum Service Level legislation, end the cheap and vindictive attacks on this movement and turn the page on politics as noisy performance – once and for all.”

Traditionally the TUC have given Labour Prime Ministers a warm welcome, in part due to the close connections between the Labour Party and movement, however the Government has faced criticism from a number of Union leaders for its decision to scrap Winter Fuel Payments from around 10 million pensioners.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham told the BBC the government should “do a U-turn”, while head of the PCS union Fran Heathcote said it was a “misstep” which needed to be “put right”.

And Paul Nowak, head of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) which brings unions together, has also said the government should “rethink” and consider other lines of support for pensioners.