UNIONS must put pressure on Sir Keir Starmer’s right-wing Labour Party to provide the bold opposition that Britain needs, Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union leader Mark Serwotka said today.

If Jeremy Corbyn’s successor, who has largely abandoned the left-wing pledges he was elected on, fails to deliver, the labour movement will step in and demand a country that “looks after working people before being loyal to billionaires,” he warned.

The ex-TUC president addressed the opening day of the union’s annual conference in Brighton just days after announcing he plans to retire at the end of the year after nearly a quarter of a century in charge. 

Mr Serwotka appeared to endorse PCS president Fran Heathcote as his successor, telling delegates on the south coast that she would make a “brilliant” general secretary, adding the time for the union to have its first elected woman leader is “long overdue.”

Speaking in the Brighton Centre, the Welshman said: “We’ll probably see a Labour government after the next general election. If we get it, it is likely to be very much to the right.

“Just like in 1997 when Tony Blair was elected, it looks like the party wants to win not by offering a bold alternative vision but by depending on the Tories being unpopular.

“But, unlike 1997, they will inherit an economy that is in recession. We know the Labour leader has indicated that he may be more of a privatiser than Blair.

“We know there is a cost-of-living crisis. We know there are food banks. We know we have a rise in racism and anti-immigration forces.

“Disabled people commit suicide because of cuts to their benefits; 300,000 are officially homeless, 4,000 sleeping rough every night. Women still have a shorter life expectancy than their mothers.

“That requires a bold opposition — one that will challenge profiteering, one that will nationalise those utilities that are making obscene profits and one that looks after working people before being loyal to billionaires.”

The 60-year-old predicted that “we will once again be back in the position that it is the trade union movement that will be the official opposition in this country.”

Mr Serwotka also praised the transformation of PCS since the 1980s after he described its forerunners — the PTC and the CPSA — as having the most right-wing union leadership in Britain.