Blair attacked over Right-wing links

Tony Blair suffered a fierce attack at the hands of TUC leader John Monks today with claims that the Prime Minister would lose votes for Labour if he continued his alliance with Right-wing European leaders.

Mr Monks hit out at the Government over a range of issues - including its "obsession with spin" and its plans to abandon workers' rights. He said union leaders, whose members still contribute millions to Labour, were sick of playing the role of "stooges" to Mr Blair and said his relationship with the Prime Minister was like that of Ernie Wise and Eric Morecambe.

"Little Ernie got clouted," he said. The normally softly spoken Mr Monks was incensed by Mr Blair's alliance with Right-wing Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi with the two leaders objecting to EU legislation on workers' rights.

This had been "bloody stupid" and was the product of Mr Blair's obsession with US economic models rather than European ones, the general secretary said.

Mr Monks, a strong supporter of Britain's entry into the euro, said Mr Blair risked losing a referendum to ditch the pound if he could not show there would be protection for workers.

He said in an interview: "They will find it very difficult to to sell the euro to British workers if there is no social dimension in parallel."

Britain faces double EU defeat