RISHI SUNAK’S plan to punish the very workers who have held society together throughout the pandemic must be resisted by a united labour movement prepared to exert political and industrial pressure.

A pity then that Labour’s leadership is engaged in a savage battle against its own members.

Sir Keir Starmer’s manoeuvres on the national executive committee (NEC) to deny the chair to Ian Murray of the Fire Brigades Union — because Murray was among those who protested over his removal of the whip from Jeremy Corbyn — provoked a walkout by the entire left group.