TUC leader urges Downing Street to show support for working people

A senior union leader has called for “whoever is in Downing Street” in the coming weeks and months to show working class people they are on their side.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said the recent election results were a “disaster” for Labour.

He told the annual conference of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) the results showed that for too many people, change felt like a “slogan, not a lived reality”.

The TUC is not affiliated to the Labour Party and won’t be involved in any leadership contest, and Mr Nowak said he wasn’t interested in playing “Number 10 top trumps”.

He told delegates at the conference at the University of Warwick: “My message to the Prime Minister, and to whoever is in Downing Street, and whoever is in government, next week, next year, and in five years’ time is simply this, it’s time to show working class people in this country you are on their side.

“It’s time to deliver the manifesto commitments Labour was elected on and it’s time to be bold and to be ambitious.”