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TUC Congress ’19 Union leaders call for unity in fight against Johnson's ‘cabal of hard-right, free market fanatics’

WORKERS must unite to kick out Boris Johnson and his “cabal of hard-right, free market fanatics,” union leaders said at the opening of TUC Congress today.

TUC president Mark Serwotka, who leads Civil Service union PCS, told delegates it was time to fight back against the “bleak prospect” of “Johnson and his zealous accomplices controlling a no-deal Britain post Brexit — flogging off anything that isn’t nailed down to the highest bidder.”

Reiterating the TUC’s official position in support of a second referendum, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Whatever happens, we will fight for our jobs, we will fight for our rights and we will fight for public services.

“Even if there is a no deal, and I will do everything I can to stop that, that won’t be the end of it — it will just be the beginning.

“Because working people did end up paying the price of the banking crash.

“I think there is no appetite among working people to pay the price for a no-deal Brexit.”

Meanwhile Unison leader Dave Prentis joined NHS workers on Brighton seafront to wrestle with a wooden mock-up of a hospital, in a bid to demonstrate the threat posed to Britain’s health service by the “no deal precipice.”

Pulling the model back with a rope, Mr Prentis said: “The Prime Minister must ditch his do-or-die bluster, respect the law by asking the EU for an extension and then let the country decide its future in a general election.

“The chaos and uncertainty a no-deal Brexit would bring could push an already under-pressure NHS over the edge.

“And patients will be the biggest losers.

“But the real tragedy is that the millions spent on no-deal Brexit preparations could have been invested in rebuilding communities.

“Instead, real issues affecting people’s lives are being ignored — to the nation’s eternal shame.”

Mr Serwotka described Mr Johnson and US president Donald Trump as “even more dangerous” than Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and warned: “Now is the time for those who have been lukewarm to the Labour leadership to stop and think.

“Do you want five years of Boris Johnson in hock to his mate Trump?

“If not, we need to unite behind Jeremy Corbyn to deliver a radical alternative based on an end to austerity.”

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