UNITE’S determination to put Labour on the spot at Labour conference over winter fuel cuts and adherence to Tory “fiscal rules” is appropriately confrontational.

Unions will engage in talks this weekend with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in a bid to avoid a public row over apparent backsliding on the New Deal for Workers employment rights package. 

Powerful currents in the trade union movement pull against direct criticism of what remains a very new Labour government after 14 years of fierce hostility from Conservative administrations, especially given genuine positive changes on rail renationalisation, workers’ rights and, this year at least, public-sector pay.