Labour would ‘let unions run riot’

UNION militants will be given the right to ‘determine the agenda’ of companies they work for, under Labour plans to rip up anti-strike laws and bring back flying pickets.

The party’s manifesto commits to enhancing workers’ rights, including setting up a Ministry of Labour and scrapping the Trade Union Act – which makes it harder for unions to stage irresponsible walkouts.

But comments made by Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell suggest they would go much further to appease the unions if they win power next week. The Labour leader last year said he would tear up the legal ban on secondary picketing, allowing the return of the so-called ‘flying pickets’ which wrecked industrial relations in the 1970s and 19 0s.

And in a previously unpublicised speech in August last year Mr McDonnell said: ‘We will give trade unionists, as a right, the ability to influence the agenda and determine the agenda of the companies that they work for.’

Last night Tory minister Priti Patel said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn wants to let his union paymasters run riot, dragging Britain back to the 1970s.’