Four Ws dominated the TUC - expect another showdown at Labour conference

The TUC conference is a bit like a dress rehearsal for the Labour Party conference two weeks later. Some years they're even in the same venue.

The leaders of the big trade unions strut their stuff on the stage and put down a marker on the demands on the Labour leadership they'll make in a fortnight's time.

And when a Labour leader comes to speak to the TUC, usually every other year, the speech is often very similar to the one given on the big stage at the party conference. Ed Miliband was the worst offender.

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This year in Brighton, the TUC conference was dominated by the four Ws: wages, winter fuel payments, workers' rights and a wealth tax.

And the same issues are likely to be dominant once again in Liverpool, at the Labour conference starting on Sunday 22 September.

This year, just weeks after the general election, the Conservatives are claiming the government has handed bumper pay rises to train drivers and junior doctors as a payback to the unions for bankrolling the Labour Party.

But in his speech in Brighton on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer issued a tough message to the unions on wages.

Don't they always?

At a TUC conference in Brighton some years ago, journalists were briefed by Number 10 that Sir Tony Blair would read the riot act to the unions on pay in his speech at the general council dinner.

That after-dinner speech, always in a smart hotel (this year it was at the Grand, next door to Brighton's conference centre), is behind closed doors with no pesky reporters or TV cameras present.

And on that occasion, it turned out that the prime minister had not said a word of the briefing given to journalists. But Mr Blair - as he was then - had got his message across. Job done.

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When Sir Tony came to the TUC, the joke was that he told his driver to keep the car engine running during his speech. He was no lover of the congress. And most unions never loved him either.

Sir Keir gave his first speech to the TUC after becoming Labour leader by video link during the COVID pandemic. That speech was the first time he told the story we've heard a million times since about his father, Rodney the toolmaker. At least we were spared the story this year.

But Sir Keir might as well have left the car engine running, because it was such a brief visit due to his Commons showdown with Labour backbenchers over winter fuel payments cuts, which required a dash back to Westminster.

Opinions were divided here about how warm the reception was for Sir Keir. Some delegates thought he received only polite applause and the standing ovation after his speech and Q&A was half-hearted.

But from Sky News' vantage point on the balcony at the back of the hall, the applause sounded generous and most, though admittedly not all, delegates did rise for a standing ovation.

The Labour leader's speech, however, is inevitably the highlight and biggest ritual at a TUC conference. The leaders of the big unions always queue up to give their verdict - usually critical - afterwards.

Other highlights this week included Monday's wealth tax debate, which included powerful speeches from the two biggest box office stars of the union movement, Unite's Sharon Graham and the RMT's Mick Lynch, attacking the winter fuel payment cuts.

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But even they were upstaged on Monday by a blockbuster speech by the TUC's affable general secretary Paul Nowak, normally a consensual and uncontroversial figure.

In by far his best speech yet as general secretary, he launched brutal attacks on the Conservatives - declaring "good riddance" to those ministers who lost their seats - and branding Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a "Putin apologist fraud".

Looking ahead to Liverpool, Mr Lynch won't be there as the RMT aren't affiliated to Labour. But the leaders of the big unions which are affiliated, like Ms Graham and Gary Smith of the GMB - on the warpath about steel industry shutdowns as the TUC conference came to a close - will be major voices there.

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And expect the four Ws - wages, winter fuel payments, workers' rights and a wealth tax - to dominate debates once again in Liverpool.

Outgoing TUC president Matt Wrack declared the unions' conference closed shortly before 1pm. The dress rehearsal is over. Now it's time for the big show.

Or showdown, more like.