Gordon Brown set the seal on his relations with the trade unions with an unrelentingly tough message on public sector pay as he addressed the Trades Union Congress today for the first time since becoming Prime Minister.

With several big unions squaring up for a fight with the Government over its 2-per cent pay ceiling and a series of staged annual pay awards, Mr Brown told them he would never bow to their demands for above-inflation pay rises.

Although he couched his message as a rejection of failed Conservative policies from the early 1990s, and inserted conciliatory messages to trade unions elsewhere in his speech, he left his audience in Brighton in no doubt that he would not back down.

"No loss of discipline, no resort to the easy options, no unaffordable promises, no risks with inflation," Mr Brown told them. "So let me be straightforward with you: pay discipline is essential to prevent inflation, to maintain growth and create more jobs, and so that we never return to the Conservative policies of boom and bust ever again."

His trade union audience heard his message on pay in silence and several members of PCS, the civil service union leading calls for co-ordinated strikes over the 2 per cent limit on public sector pay rises, held up signs as be began, saying: "Fair pay for public servants."

The 40-minute address was littered with passages seemingly designed to please the TUC delegates, with references to tackling global poverty, the recent unveiling of a statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square, and the importance of enforcing the minimum wage.

But the speech was greeted with only around 30 seconds of applause - although that reception was still considerably warmer than that afforded Tony Blair on his valedictory appearance at last year's TUC, when he was booed and jeered as he told unions to modernise or face irrelevance.

Mr Brown used his speech to outline plans for bringing the UK closer to full employment than ever before, with a crackdown on migration to ensure “British jobs for British people”.

He said that he hoped this could be “Britain’s century”, and wanted to see the economy move towards producing highly skilled posts rather than lower skilled. He put forward a package of measures which would be implemented “rapidly” to create 500,000 jobs.

Previously a lack of available posts was the major barrier to people working, but now there were more than 650,000 vacancies waiting to be filled, he said.

“The bigger barrier to full employment is not the lack of jobs but the lack of skills,” he said. “We can - if we make the right decisions - advance closer to full employment than ever, with a British job on offer for every British worker.”

The Conservatives immediately dismissed that as an empty promise. Chris Grayling, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “When Gordon Brown talks about British jobs for British workers, he is conveniently forgetting the fact that the vast majority of new jobs created in Britain since 1997 have gone to people moving into the UK from other countries.

“His new proposals will also have to apply equally to every worker right across the European Union who wants to come and work in Britain.."

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, which has threatened to cut itself off from the Labour party over pay, depriving the Party of £2 million a year in affiliation fees, warned there was a “big gap” between the rhetoric and the reality of Mr Brown’s Government .

“He said nothing about fat cats in the City or about the private equity industry and it left me with even more problems about tying in the rhetoric with the reality," he said.

“The speech was not received wonderfully well, even though he used some heartstrings such as mentioning Nelson Mandela.”

Mr Kenny warned Labour that his union’s members could “walk away” from the party unless relations improved. He said pressure was coming from members of the GMB questioning its relationship with the Labour Party. "We sign a cheque every year for £2 million for Labour, yet we can’t get basic rights for agency workers," he added.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, commented: “We share Gordon Brown’s desire to increase workers’ skills, create new jobs and develop quality public services. But it is totally inconsistent for him to talk about this while cutting Civil Service jobs and cutting real-terms pay.”

Colin Moses, chairman of the Prison Officers Association whose members staged a landmark one-day walkout earlier this month over pay, said that the speech held little to reassure them. “I am sure that my members will be disappointed and angry at Gordon Brown’s dogmatic approach to public sector pay," he said.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, said: “The speech lacked the necessary box office ticket to get a standing ovation or any enthusiasm from delegates.

“He did not guarantee Government support for a new European directive on agency workers and did not say enough about job protection. The reaction was understandably muted while at the same time there is obvious anger about public sector pay.”

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