Mr tony Blair has been threatened with "a rough ride" when he addresses the Trades Union Congress today amid gathering opposition to increased public/private partnerships in running the public services.
The warning came from Mr John Edmonds, general secretary of the GMB union, despite fresh government promises to protect the pension and employment rights of workers moved from the public to private sectors.
In her speech to Congress in Brighton yesterday, the Trade and Industry Secretary, Ms Patrician Hewitt, said workers left in "limbo" when a public service contract transferred to another company would be given new rights and guarantees.
Ms Hewitt told delegates: "When public service workers move from the public to the private sector we have already made sure their rights are protected. But that is not working properly when the same workers move on to another private sector company. We can't allow workers to be left in limbo when a public contract transfers from one company to another, and we won't allow our public servants to be short-changed."
However Ms Hewitt's speech won only muted applause, with Mr Edmonds describing it as "another example of substantial spin but little substance". Insisting Ms Hewitt had offered nothing of reassurance to public sector workers, the GMB leader continued: "If that speech was supposed to smooth the path for the Prime Minister (today) then he is in for a rough ride." Downing Street played-down that threat last night, insisting Mr Blair would build on "partnership" with the Trades Unions and stress his "absolute commitment" to public services reflected in spending on health and education rising faster than in other EU countries.
However, it seemed clear there would be no backing down from Mr Blair's determination that increased investment in schools and hospitals must be accompanied by the reform pledged in Labour's winning general election manifesto. The prime minister's spokesman also emphasised that the pragmatic use of private firms was only part of a much bigger programme of reform designed to raise standards.
The risk of a row was underlined by the assertion of this year's Congress President, Mr Bill Morris, that the moral state of the nation was defined by the quality of its public services.
Mr Morris insisted the public services could not be fixed by "spin" or presentation but only by investment and real improvements. "The quality of our public services defines not just the quality of our lives but also the moral state of our nation," he said. "We need to acknowledge that a society which largely depends on the private sector to deliver public services would be a very different kind of society from that which is required to create equality and justice. It would be a society in which the priority was shareholder value rather than social need."