Coup for Cameron as Tory leader on front page of Time magazine

Trade unions have opened top-level negotiations with the Conservative Party after privately admitting that they fear Gordon Brown is heading for defeat.

Some of Labour’s biggest donors, including the GMB, the Communication Workers Union, Unison and Usdaw, have confirmed that they have held meetings with Richard Balfe, the Tory trade union envoy.

Aslef indicated that it is also prepared to meet Mr Balfe and has arranged to see Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. Only Unite, the super-union, and Ucatt, the construction workers’ union, have refused because of their historic Labour ties.

The disclosure comes as the biggest unions disclosed that they are preparing a co-ordinated attack on government policy at Labour’s conference in ten days, potentially jeopardising the Prime Minister’s calls for unity. They have agreed to force a debate on the windfall tax, before the expected announcement of Mr Brown’s energy package today, with a GMB motion that powers to cap utility bills be restored to the energy regulator.

Mr Balfe, who was appointed as David Cameron’s envoy to the union movement in March, held a string of meetings this week with union leaders, brandishing figures from the House of Commons library suggesting that 20 to 30 per cent of union members vote Tory.

He has been courting the unions since May when he sent a letter asking each of them for a meeting. All replied apart from Ucatt and PCS, the civil service union, he said. In his meetings, Mr Balfe has attempted to play on trade unions’ hostility towards some members of the Government.

He told The Times: “We asked [union leaders] whether they would prefer to deal with John Hutton or Michael Gove [the Shadow Education Secretary].” Union leaders have been calling privately for Mr Hutton, the Business Secretary, to be removed from his post.

Mr Balfe said that many discussions also touched on whether the Tories will continue the union modernisation fund, a £10 million pot. Mr Balfe will offer his recommendation to Mr Cameron at the end of this year on whether to keep the fund.

He said that unions must convince him that projects paid for from the fund help to “build a modern Britain”, rather than just covering operating costs. He has also told them that there are “no plans” that he is aware of to amend trade union laws, although the Tories want a cap to restrict union funding to Labour.

Several unions say they believe that it is pragmatic to open lines of communication with the Conservatives. A GMB spokeswoman said: “We talk to anybody and everybody who might be able to help our members.”

Two GMB officials have met Mr Balfe, and Keith Sonnett, Unison’s deputy general secretary, has arranged meetings with Eric Pickles, the Shadow Communities Secretary. At least two general secretaries, Billy Hayes, of the CWU, and John Hannett, of Usdaw, have met Mr Balfe personally.

Andrew Murray, of Unite, said that the union had been reluctant even to acknowledge the Tories’ approach.

“In the end we had to reply. We will work with any democratically-elected government in the proper way. But we are a Labour-affiliated union and a meeting would be a mistake and none of our members would want or expect one.” The Times understands, however, that lower-ranking officials at Unite have defied the management and already opened discussions.

Despite emphasising that the Prime Minister was “among friends” when he visited the TUC conference on Tuesday, the contact has still apparently unnerved the Government.

Harriet Harman, the deputy Labour leader, yesterday accused the Conservatives of “sidling up to the unions” and suggested that they were “false friends”.

Times Recommends

• Oh no, Mr Darling: you have failed
• BBC survives dogfight over Kennel Club expose
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone