EXCLUSIVE: Patronising Pickles leads disgraced Tories' plot to gut unions

Mr Pickles was greeted as a conquering hero at a beer and sandwiches reception to launch the deeply dangerous Trade Union Reform Campaign (TURC).

Also warmly received in Parliament’s Jubilee Room was TURC chairman Aidan Burley MP, notorious for his involvement in a nazi-style stag party in France.

Tory MPs and an assorted bunch of right-wing zealots guffawed with laughter as Mr Pickles told a silly joke about the Morning Star’s major expose of their plotting.

The shameless Cabinet minister declared “a special thanks to Roger of the Morning Star on the front page.

“I come from a Labour family. My parents always felt that I would appear on the front page of the Morning Star, but not exactly in this particular context.

“It is the first time that we have been described as a dinosaur.”

Then Mr Pickles showed his fangs by pledging a policy paper “pretty soon” on slashing payments to trade union reps in the Civil Service for activities during working time.

He said the paper from Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude would aim to reduce trade union facility time to private sector levels, rather than what he termed “gold plated arrangements.”

Following this paper, Mr Pickles said he intended to issue “helpful guidance” to councils giving them legal and practical assurance on cutting facility time for trade union reps.

He also suggested that public service employers should charge unions 20p a time for collecting union dues, and that steps should be taken to stop public-sector workers being “unwittingly conned” into paying the political levy.

Disgraced former defence secretary Liam Fox lurked in the wings at the event, and organisers proudly announced that they have signed up three more Tory MPs to their 13-strong “parliamentary council.”

The latest recruits are Plymouth MP Oliver Colville, Chester MP Stephen Mosley and Aberconwy MP Guto Bebb.

Unite union general secretary Len McCluskey condemned TURC as “a rogues’ gallery full of discredited Tories and unpalatable right-wing views.”

Public-service union PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said a TUC report showed that workplace reps could be worth up to £700 million each year to the economy through reducing staff turnover, fewer employment tribunals and cutting workplace sickness and injuries.