TRADE unions have hit back after Lord Peter Mandelson wrote in the Sunday Times today that Labour should “slow down” on boosting workers’ rights.

The Blair-era Cabinet minister said the new deal for workers — which Labour has pledged to implement within 100 days of winning office — “must not be rushed,” should be done in consultation with business and “should not go further than the settlement bequeathed by New Labour,” which infamously left Thatcher’s anti-union laws intact.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said that “Peter Mandelson earns his corn working as a consultant for private corporations.