Can Starmer woo the unions back into a fulfilling relationship with Labour?

As the first Labour leader to address the Trades Union Congress as prime minister in 15 years, Keir Starmer might have hoped for a more enthusiastic reception. As with Tony Blair when he was building “New Labour” and taking the party into government in the 1990s, they knew, from bitter, disappointed experience, not to expect that much from “their” prime minister. When Blair won the 1997 election, he told the Labour movement that they had “won as New Labour and would govern as New Labour”; now Starmer tells them: “We ran as a changed Labour Party and we will govern as a changed Labour Party.” So they know from recent experience what type of leader Starmer is. On industrial relations and workers’ rights, the brothers and sisters of the trade union movement were not given as much as they’d hoped for – but at least it’s a Labour government, so, for now, they’ll be spared another round of Conservative trade union regulations. Angela Rayner and Jonathan Reynolds will be placing new workers’ rights into legislation soon, but the “new deal for workers” won’t be as strong as originally envisaged a few years ago – so no sectoral collective bargaining, for example.