LABOUR will withdraw support for new surveillance powers if no safeguards are provided to prevent spying on trade unionists, shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said yesterday.

He said it would be an “abdication of responsibility” for public safety to adopt outright opposition to the government’s Investigatory Powers Bill at its second reading and ordered Labour MPs to abstain in the vote.

But Mr Burnham warned Home Secretary Theresa May that Labour would sabotage the Bill’s progress through Parliament unless she offered more privacy protections.