Ed Balls harks back to 1945 in call to ‘rebuild UK for future’

A proposed union motion condemning the current pay freeze for public sector workers was watered down yesterday afternoon, avoiding the danger of defeat for leader Ed Miliband, who insists that preserving jobs must take priority over pay rises.

The motion finally passed merely “noted” the freeze, but union bosses insisted they had the conference behind them in their demands for it to be lifted. They then trained their sights firmly on the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls.

The General Secretary of the GMB, Paul Kenny, published a dossier of Mr Balls’s alleged “policy errors”, including light-touch financial regulation and PFI funding deals.

Unison’s General Secretary Dave Prentis said Mr Balls had to show voters that “there is a real difference between Labour and the Tory party”.

“To those who believe that driving down further the pay of public service workers will save jobs, I say you are wrong,” said Mr Prentis. “Wrong morally and wrong economically.”