Labour leaders facing challenge from unions over pay restraint

hadow Chancellor Ed Balls has become the focus of a series of attacks from union leaders which threaten to overshadow his keynote speech this afternoon. GMB leader Paul Kenny has drawn up a dossier of economic “Balls Ups” which he said were made when Mr Balls was in Government, while Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, warned that Labour will lose the next election if it does not connect with workers.

Mr Kenny said of the Shadow Chancellor: “He would give an aspirin a headache.”

Mr Balls had already hit the headlines yesterday after scoring twice in the traditional Labour MPs versus lobby journalists football match in Manchester – one of them a questionable penalty for which he was accused of diving.

He also used an interview to seek to exploit divisions within the Liberal Democrats by calling on Business Secretary Vince Cable to ditch both his party leader, Nick Clegg, and the entire coalition agreement.

His words follow reports that the Lib Dems would demand the removal of Mr Balls from his post before entering into any future coalition with Labour, due to his “bullying” and “intolerable” attitude.

Mr Balls said: “Right now, if the Lib Dems said ‘okay, we got this one wrong and we’re walking out’, I think that would absolutely be in the national interest.

“The Lib Dems have far more power to shape the destiny of this parliament than sometimes they realise. I don’t think there’s any possibility of getting (Nick) Clegg to change his mind but I think there is a chance of changing Vince Cable’s. He’s clearly willing to say to people off the record that he’s worried. I think he should come out and show a bit of leadership.”

His message was significantly different to that coming from Labour leader Ed Miliband, who dismissed any talk of overtures from the Lib Dems about a possible tie-up in the event of a hung parliament in 2015.

“This is way overdone,” he said. “I want a majority Labour government, I’m working for a majority Labour government.

“If there are areas where people can co-operate across the divide in politics, fine.”

Launching a fresh attack on the Lib Dems, he added: “The problem about the Lib Dems, including Vince I’m afraid, is that they are an accomplice to this Government, not a brake on it.

“When it comes to the economic plans that are not working, the NHS plans that are wrong, what’s happened on tuition fees, they are going in the wrong direction.”

The Labour leader also hit back at the unions who were criticising his leadership, saying Mr McCluskey was wrong to oppose a public sector pay freeze and insisting Labour under his leadership would be “the party of the private sector” as much as the public.

He said: “You can’t say at one and the same time that Len McCluskey is saying ‘you’re wrong on pay restraint’ and then say we’re giving in to him and he is pulling our strings.”

Asked about the pay freeze, he said: “He is entitled to his view but he is wrong. We’ve got the right policy to say we put jobs in the public sector ahead of pay rises. That’s what we said we would do this parliament. It is a difficult decision but it is the way to keep jobs in the public sector.”

The row will continue on the conference floor today when union officials will call for the party to condemn the Government’s public sector pay freeze.