Tony Blair used to be accused by the former TUC head John Monks of treating the trade unions like “embarrassing elderly relatives”. Keir Starmer prefers to regard them as partners. That much was clear from the Prime Minister’s speech to the TUC Congress in which he used the word “partnership” seven times.
Much recent media coverage of Labour and the unions has been overwrought. The party is invariably either “in bed” with them or “at war” with them (and sometimes both at once). The middle ground in which compromise and negotiation take place – witness Mick Lynch’s measured praise for Starmer – is usually ignored.
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